Dear Journal
by Kat-the-Echidna
Summary: What really went on behind the scenes after Dawn returned to Mobius? Be brave and look in her journal to find out. What secrets will it reveal? This is a request story for my good friend The Andromeda Rose.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N:**_ This is a story for my good friend The Andromeda Rose. She liked a little story I had deleted a long time ago, and since we're good friends, I decided to make one for her since she liked the idea of it and all. With just a few little tweaks here and there, I think I can safely say that this will be a little better than the original one I had wrote a year or so ago. But to others who are reading this, well, I hope you like it :)

* * *

Dear Journal,

I finally found my old journal I had ever since I was a human on Earth. It was in a weird spot where I found it (it was in Shad's bed...), but I'm glad I found the old thing though. It's a bit of a thick book, plus I don't have many entries in it. I'm surprised it even survived being with a hyperactive puppy...

Anyway, I'm not going to date my entries for the sheer fact that anyone could be reading this when I'm not around (that especially goes to you, Sonic) and I don't want to give out too much information about what's going on in my new daily life as a Mobian.

Jeez, this isn't even an entry. More like...I dunno, a prologue or something.

I'm bored. I wonder what's on TV.

* * *

Dear Journal,

I start school in tomorrow. Great. But I'm supposed to be going to one of the best high schools on the continent. And it's near Knothole, so it's a good walking distance. Or if I just become lazy I can Chaos Control home. That'd be a good way to play hooky...Hehehe...

Cyrus just called me yesterday and he took me out to a movie. It's been a while since I hung out with Cyrus since we're close childhood friends and all. I had a great time though, but Sonic kept poking fun at me because he thought it was a date. We were just hanging out like regular friends do, jeez. Oh yeah, Sonic's my dad, if you didn't realize it, but I still have the habit of calling him by his first name because I'm still trying to get used to the fact that he's my biological father and I can't quite grasp the concept of calling him "Dad" just yet.

I'm really hating this school thing. It's going to take me a while to get over it. I gotta go in just a matter of hours. It's seven at night now. I'm a little nervous. Everyone practically knows who I am and I do not want to be treated specially or get so much attention when I go there. And my friends are going to different schools, so they won't be with me. So I'll be alone when I go there. Ugh.

I'm bored again. Shad's pestering me. I think he wants to play. No, he has to go outside. Be right back.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Okay, I just survived my first day of school. All I can say was that...well...it wasn't good and it wasn't bad. It wasn't even neutral. Anyway, here's what happened when I got there:

I was glad to learn that no one really paid attention to me when I first got there. Sonic gave me the directions to the school so I walked there by myself. He wanted to go with me just in case I was nervous, but I said no since I wanted to be independent (plus I'm like, sixteen now). Anyway, no one really noticed me when I got there...until the freakin' teacher called out my name. We were in the classrooms by this time since we had got our schedules, and the teacher was doing attendance. So yeah, when my name was called, and when I alerted them of my presence, all eyes were literally on me. What made it worse was that the teacher even added "princess" to my name...

My first class was Civics, and the first thing we had to do was get acquainted with one another since this was a new school year. So our teacher, who is a orange female porcupine that goes by the name Ms. Tangine (I ended up calling her Ms. Tangerine by accident), handed us those sheets where you have to answer questions about your hobbies and interests and all of that crap. And then we'd have to trade with each other and read the other person's paper out loud. What was weird was that all of the girls wanted to trade papers with me (a few boys did too), but only two people could trade papers. Ms. Tangine decided to change tactics and decided it'd be best to just let each student read their paper out loud.

The rest of the class was boring. All we did was get our books and do a little worksheet. All of the girls wanted to talk to me though, which was really getting on my nerves. I believe 93% of the girls here are girly-girls, 'cause all they asked me were questions related to things like am I going to marry a prince or do I get anything I want.

Second hour was a little more eventful. I had Gym. I personally do not like Gym classes because most of the time the teachers are usually fatasses who stress good health or buff guys who look like they're on steroids who act like drill sergeants. But I actually like the guy who's teaching the class. He's an owl named Mr. Pakarry. Practically everyone loves the guy in the school. He smiles a lot, really friendly, and makes anything fun, even if we are high school students. He was really honored to meet me, as he said. I like him.

What I didn't like was that we had to pair up with partners on the first day. We were playing Badminton and we needed partners to first practice and then compete against other teams. Pakarry wanted me to pick a partner, but then all of the girls nearly ambushed me so I could pick them. I felt really uncomfortable after that, so I told Pakarry he'd have to pick for me. So he ended up picking this emo looking guy in a corner. He was a white wolf with a black muzzle, the underside of his tail was black, and he had these really pretty pure blue eyes. He was in his gym clothes, which was a pair of green jogging pants and no shirt. He wore green, white, blue and black tennis shoes, and there was a bone earring in his left ear. His name was Kura Nevras. What was weird was that both the guys and girls looked...upset. Girls whispered amongst themselves and guys shot imaginary daggers at the canine. He looked really sullen, but his mood brightened up a bit when he saw that he had a partner.

So after we had our partners, we got out rackets and birdies and started practicing. The gym was sort of big, and there was a wall separating the two sides. We could have went to either side for practice, so I went over to the other side since it was less crowded, and everyone was practically glaring at Kura, and I thought he was getting uncomfortable. He seemed glad. We didn't exchange words at first while we practice, but then we both got bored and we just started talking and stopped practicing all together. He was the first one to break the ice though. I remember the conversation.

He asked "So, um, you're the princess, huh?" His voice was like a mixture of Scourge's and Shadow's with some of Cyrus's voice.

"Yup," I yawned. "Nothing too specially though."

"Sonic's your dad, right?"

"Yup." He started shuffling with his feet a little while I was swinging my racket around like it was a baseball bat.

"So...um...what's it like, being a princess and all? Do you like, get anything you want?"

"Being a princess isn't anything special," I said for like the thousandth time. "I just live up in a castle, and my dad's a king. There's nothing else to it. I live a life that's pretty similar to anyone else. I just have more responsibilities and I have the worry about becoming a queen someday." Kura's ear twitched.

"I heard you were like, a human at one point."

"Yup. It's a very long, and very complicated story behind that."

"I like long and complicated stories." Now that was weird.

"By the way, why did it seem like everyone didn't like you because you're my partner?" I had to ask. I mean, it was like he didn't deserve to even be around me.

"Nobody likes me." he said.

"Why?"

"Because I'm weird." He made it sound so casual.

"Weird how? If anyone's weird it's me. I'm a freakin' princess but I'm not afraid of throwing a fist at the evil king of Moebius himself, or Robotnik." Kura smiled to that, but I had got the feeling that this was the first time he actually smiled in a long time.

"You're the first person to ever talk to me," he said. "Everyone else just doesn't like me because I'm weird."

"How are you weird? Please, explain that to me."

"I like dissecting things."

"So? You must be a science fanatic, big deal."

"I once took a squirrel and a bird, cut them both open, bonded both animals together and made a bird-squirrel hybrid thingie and made it my pet even though it was clearly dead. I was eleven then." That's just scary...I gave him this weird look and he laughed. "I'm joking. But, I do take things like insects and very few small animals and dissect them to see how their bodies function on the inside, as well as finding out their diets and all."

"But I still don't get it. Why don't people like you because of that?"

"Because I said I wanted to one day cut open a Mobian. And I still want to do that." That's kind of weird, but not entirely. There are jobs for that. Anyway, I was really warming up to Kura. He seemed like a really nice guy. He didn't have my first hour, but he had the rest of my hours. We sat and talked wen we can in class, and talked at lunch. I found out his dad died and his mom's missing, so he's currently living with his aunt. He doesn't have a problem with her; they're really close actually. His aunt practically took him in as her own son. And he's not emo, just...slightly emo-ish if that's what you wanna call it. Most of the students didn't like that fact that I only talked to Kura that whole day, but I don't give a crap. They annoyed the hell out of me so they deserve it.

Right before school ended, I gave Kura my cell number so we could stay in touch. He was like, really happy after that. He says he'd text me later. After that, we went our separate ways and go home. And that pretty much sums up my day.

I filled up an entire page now. I'm done. I'm hungry and I smell chili. Is Sonic cooking?

* * *

Dear Journal,

Where the hell is my phone? ! I hear it ringing but I can find it!

Oh. It was in my pocket the whole time...Hehehe...

* * *

**_E/N: _**Don't you hate it when that happens? Something similar happened to me. I was looking for my headphones to my iPod, only to discover that they were in my ears the whole time...

So, anyway, what'd you think?


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N:**_ Since I didn't go to school today, I figured I had more than enough time to update.

* * *

Dear Journal,

The following week has been...well, normal in my standards. I go to school, hang out with Kura, come home, yadda yadda yadda. It's autumn now. Late September. It's almost October, my favorite month. It's Saturday, and I have nothing to do.

Oh yeah, since I'm writing this stuff down, I have to say, I sorta regret giving Kura my cell number. He blew up my phone the other day with text messages. He literally text me every two seconds. I left my room for not even a minute, and when I came back, I had twenty-five messages on my phone. No joke. I'll write down some of them but not all of them 'cause I'm lazy.

"Hi"

"What r u doing?"

"I'm nervous. No 1 ever gave me their cell numbers"

"I'm home now"

"I found a caterpillar in my yard"

"It's too small 2 cut open. I'm gonna keep it and raise it into a butterfly"

"I fed it some lettuce. It likes it"

"Wat does the castle looks like on the inside?"

"Ur dad is my idol. I look up 2 him"

This one's my personal favorite:

"Do you like pie? My favorite is apple"

"I told my aunt about u. She says hi"

"Do u have friends?"

"Sorry for texting u so much"

There's a part of me that feels sorry for him and another part of me that's annoyed. I feel sorry for him because I don't think he ever had a friend and I'm the first person to become his friend and he doesn't know how to act to that, and the I'm annoyed because I have a crapload of messages to respond to. So, being the nice person I am, I invited him over to Knothole for a bit so he can meet my friends, as well as Sonic. He knew where Knothole was, but wasn't sure if he could enter since he doesn't live there, so I had to lead him there.

Anyway, when we did get back into Knothole, I introduced him to my friends Brendon, Cyrus and Evra first. It made since; even though I love all of the Sonic characters, my friends came first. He was a little nervous, but he was slowly coming out of his shell. I took him around Knothole and introduced him to everyone else who were here in the village with us. People like Knuckles, Julie-Su, Silver, Blaze, etc. don't live here. They come around every now and then occasionally, and there's no way for me to get in contact with them.

After they were out of the way, I decided to put the icing on the cake by introducing him to Sonic. He was luckily wandering around Knothole, so it was fairly easy for me to find him. When Kura saw Sonic, his eyes grew wide and he actually started shivering. I'll wrote down what happened.

I said "Kura, I want ya to meet my dad. Since we're friends and all, Sonic's gonna have to get to know ya. Sonic, this is Kura. He's the guy I told you about the other day. You're his idol in his eyes." Sonic smiled his trademark smile and stuck out his hand.

"Hi Kura! Nice to meet ya!" Kura was so nervous, but he was somehow able to shake hands with Sonic.

Kura said, or rather stammered "H-h-h-he-hello M-M-M-Mister-I-I mean, K-Ki-King S-S-So-Sonic s-s-sir...I-I-I'm h-ho-hon-honored t-t-t-to m-m-m-meet y-y-y-you..."

"So, you're good friends with Dawn, eh?"

"Y-y-y-yeah. W-we...um...we m-met in g-gym c-cl-class..." And they just started talking after that. Kura started to unwind the more he talked to Sonic. I'm not gonna write down what they were talking about because I don't thin it's that important. Or I'm just lazy. Either way, I'm not writing it down.

So after Kura and Sonic finished their little discussion, I hung out with my three childhood friends, along with Kura. They seem to get along very well, especially him, Brendon and Cyrus. So it turns out that Kura is indeed a science geek and love playing the guitar. But it was really great to see Kura full of life now. He looked so lonely, but now he has people he can talk to and call his friends. Even those blue eyes of his are brighter. But since we all had important roles in Knothole now, the trio couldn't stay long. Evra was the first to go since Bunnie summoned her, next was Brendon since Tails needed him, and Cyrus went last 'cause he has flying lessons (funny how he's a bat and can't fly).

Now that we were the only ones left, Kura and I ended up wandering to the Ring Pool, and we just sat there and talked. We mostly talked about how much we hated school, and Kura asked questions relating to my princess duties. At around six after, Kura left, so I went back to the castle for the day.

By the way, this all happened Friday and not today. I don't think I made that clear.

Sonic just summoned me. Better go see what's up.

* * *

Dear Journal,

I just found out DeviantART freakin' exist on Mobius! I'm gonna see if it's any different from the one on Earth...

* * *

Dear Journal,

Not really a difference. It's practically the same, except there's not any traces of Sonadow (a.k.a. SonicxShadow) on the site, which is a bit of a good thing. But I found myself looking at a lot of TMNT art now, even though I never did back home on Earth when I was still a human.

Speaking of that, I miss my surrogate mom and dad...I haven't seen nor heard from them ever since I left...I hope they're okay...

...I may be going off topic a bit but, is it me or does Leonardo look so attractive? Raphael's not too bad to look at either...What the-why the hell am I even thinking about them like that? ! I mean, I watched some of the 90's cartoon and most of the 2k3 series, but I never really liked them like _that! _Or maybe it's because I'm an anthro now and my new hormones are kicking in (even though they're more mutants than anthros but whatever). Well, at least now I won't feel ashamed of myself if I say that Leo or Raph are sexy. And I mean that as an example. I am not attracted to them in any way. Maybe this is how some of the fan girls feel.

I know I'm gonna have to erase this out sooner or later. I just get a feeling in my gut that says so.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Sonic bought me a new game for my computer. It's called _"Bioshock."_ It looks really cool and creepy. He even bought me a controller for it. I'm gonna play it and see what it's all about.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Addicted. Must keep playing. Can't write.

* * *

**_E/N:_**I always get addicted to games I like and end up playing them 24 hours straight if I get the chance. That doesn't really mean I'm a hardcore/competitive player or anything. But there I go rambling again...


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N:**_ I would have updated yesterday but I was lazy. Plus I had to edit it a bit too.

* * *

Dear Journal,

We ended up having a substitute teacher third, fourth fifth and eighth hour. I talked to Kura in those classes, when I was awake. I always go to sleep whenever we have a substitute teacher (that's laid-back anyway). I have to say, Kura's a really cool guy once you get to know him more. We had fun those four hours.

Lunch, however, wasn't so great. Some ass-wipe tried to mess with Kura while I'm right there! I gave him what was coming to him though. I felt real good after that too, 'cause the guy who I sent packing was like the school jock/bully. Here's what happened:

Kura and I had came back from getting a soda from the machine when this red fox along with a mongoose and bear just came up and smacked Kura in the back of his head! He was really arrogant too, cocky, and just an a-hole all around.

"'Sup freak?" he said right after he smacked poor Kura. Said wolf didn't say or do anything. His demeanor changed completely. He was bright earlier, but now he just hung his head, looking defenseless. Seeing that Kura wasn't going to do anything, they kept messing with him. The bear was next to poke fun at him. The mongoose looked hesitant though. Like he wasn't even supposed to be there.

"Aww, what's da matter? Da lil' freak is too afraid to stand up for himself?" By that time, I had enough. I shot up from my seat, stormed over and got right up to the jerk's face.

"I'm giving you three exactly three seconds to fuck off or else one of ya are gonna end up in a body bag!" The entire lunch room when quiet after that. No joke. I didn't exactly yell or shout, but my voice was kinda loud. All three backed up a little, but the fox wasn't about to back down just because I was a girl, or a princess for that matter. I think my words felt like a punch in the face to them though. And then I noticed that some of the students in the cafeteria started to gather around us like a fight was about to happen. If you ask me, they were about to witness a first-degree murder.

He said "Look here Cupcake, I ain't got nothin' against ya, so why don't you just move aisde and stop stickin' up for that nobody behind ya, 'kay?" Then came the actual punch to the face. Never, ever,call anyone a nobody, because that will only make you one. And it was bad enough Kura was a sort of nervous guy. There was no way I was going to let these bastards walk all over him! Oh yeah, and the little crowd that had gathered around us had cheered me on when I punched the guy. I felt so awesome. And I could have sworn I heard someone go "nice one" in the background somewhere.

By the way, here's a little tip for ya: When you punch anyone, guy or girl, make sure you fold your thumb under your other fingers. Trust me, it works. Still, I don't know _why _I would write that down considering that this is my journal and no one should be looking in it. Or maybe someone's reading it even as we speak. I'll find out who you are later.

Anyway, the fox got back on his feet, and I was giving him the death look. I was even rearing up to throw another fist. After knocking around Scourge as much as I could, I can safely say that I know how Knuckles feels whenever he wants to hit someone, especially someone you don't like. It felt so good to hit him!

Once foxy was back on his feet, he gave me this look like he couldn't believe what just happened. He was holding his nose too, and I saw blood trickling down his muzzle. I hoped I broke his nose. Anyway, the mongoose ushered him out of the cafeteria with the bear lagging behind him. I heard whispering and mumbling all around the place after that, but I didn't care. I was concerned about Kura. I turned to look at him just to see that he had watched the whole scene. I went back over to him and placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, you ok?" Kura didn't say anything right away, but he hung his head again. This time his hair blocked his eyes.

And then he said "You didn't have to do that y'know...He's my bully, so I have to stand up to him. Not you." I folded my arms and gave him a look.

"Your bully or not, I was not 'bout to just sit there and let him treat you like dirt! Besides, I'm not saying this to be mean but, if I hadn't got in the way, he would've kept messin' with you! And that's what friends do. They look out for one another." Kura suddenly lifted up his head and looked at me with this big doe-eyed look. I just smiled at him and told him everything was going to be ok.

After that, lunch proceeded without a hitch. We even saw the same trio in the hallway after lunch, but they steered clear of us. The fox's nose was bandaged too. I think I did break his nose. We didn't even talk eighth hour. We fell asleep. We had English, and all we did was read books. Bor-ing!

And then we went home after school, and I started playing _Bioshock_ again. I'm going to go do that now actually.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Oh my God, I'm so excited. Halloween is coming up! It's my favorite holiday because you get a ton of free candy, you get hours upon hours of horror flicks, and you get a ton of free candy! I think someone wanted to throw a Halloween party though. I don't remember who it was.

Hey, I was just wondering, how come the huge diving suit things in _Bioshock _are called "Big Daddies" and the little girls with the syringes are called "Little Sisters?" If the Big Daddies are the guardians of the Little Sisters, then shouldn't they be referred to as their daughters or something? Eh, I dunno. It's video game logic I suppose.

Also, i have to say, the gimmick in the game where you have to use plasmids to make your body a weapon is creepy and cool at the same time. I mean, since when can you take a syringe, inject some unknown substance in ya and deadly wasps suddenly started growing in your arm, and when they pop out they attack your enemy. I bet it's really painful but then it's epic.

Kura just texted me and said he just bought _"Dead Space" _and wanted to know if I wanted to play co-op with him. I texted him back just now saying that I would. Now I'll just need to buy the game itself in order to play co-op with him. I wonder how much that game would cost in Mobius' currency? If I was still on Earth, the game would be fifty bucks or under depending on if it was a new release or not. I think I'm look that up now.

* * *

Dear Journal,

The game costs fifteen Rings. I guess because pure gold is more valuable than thin sheets of green paper, the price seems cheaper here. It's after five now. If I hurry I can go out now and get the game. I have more than enough in my allowance to get the game. Better tell Sonic I'm heading out before I go. I'm gonna take my emerald with me too just in case I get lazy and decide to teleport home.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Once again, I'm pissed. Well, I'm not so much as pissed as I am agitated. Some guy tried to kidnap me while I was coming home from Game Stop. I couldn't get a good look at him since I was in a hurry and the sun was beginning to set. Plus, when I fought him off, I ran immediately. I did not want to be out at night, especially since there was a certain green hedgehog out to get me.

Anyway, I couldn't get a clear picture of him since he was wearing a hoodie and had a hood over his head. I saw him lallygagging outside of the store when I went in, and he was still out there when I left. I got the feeling I was being followed after I was at least ten paces away from the store. Plus, my hearing was more acute now that I was a hedgehog again, so I could hear more than I would if I was human. It had rained earlier, and then ground was wet along with the dead leaves on the sidewalk. I could hear his footsteps behind me, but I didn't know if it was the same guy or not, so I decided to test him.

I changed my route and went accross the street towards a Starbucks to make it seem like I was going somewhere else. I still heard him behind me. I almost went around a block and crossed a street again near the quieter area of Station Square. I still heard him. So now I could safely assume that I was indeed being followed.

I wasn't scared or anything, but I was cautious. I had my hand near my belt just in case I might need it. Brendon, Tails and Rotor made me a special belt that had two cases on each side. In one case was a metal staff that I could use as my weapon. There was a sensor on that case, and all I had to do was wave my hand over it and the staff would be thrown into my hands and then extend to its fully long form. The other case was empty; I could put what ever I wanted in there. I'm not sure what I was going to put in it just yet.

Anyway, I just realized I just screwed myself because I had cut into an alley without trying to. It didn't have a dead end, but I preferred to be out on the streets where there were more people (or Mobians) around just in case something happened. So just when I turn around to go a different way, the guy grabs me and tries to gag me so I wouldn't be able to scream. He caught me off guard, but I was able to elbow him in the chest and then ninja kick him in the gut (I still wonder how I was able to do that). I was strong enough to knock him to the ground, and his hood fell off, and I could just get a quick look to see that he was an echidna. I didn't bother with getting all of his body features since I took the opportunity to run like hell. And during all of this, I hung on to my new game the whole time. Once I was far away from the alley, I Chaos Controlled back home.

My heart was pounding when I got back; I wasn't so much as scared, but I was a little nervous. This wasn't like when Scourge tried to kidnap me. I didn't know the guy at all and I didn't know what to expect from him. He could have been a serial kidnapper, killer or rapist. And he knew what I looked like, so he could try this again later if I run into him again. I was not about to be an idiot this time. I immediately told Sonic once I was home. He was concerned, of course, and contacted Shadow to have him have the police force on high alert for the guy. However, the only description I could give him was that he was an echidna wearing a dark blue hoodie. I'm sure that'll be _so_ much help...

But after that little hair-raising experience was over, I texted Kura again and said I got the game. He told me I should play single player first before I go into co-op mode. So now I'm gonna go play this game on my Xbox 360 I got for my birthday. It doesn't look as cool as _Bioshock_ though...

* * *

Dear Journal,

I'm addicted again. Don't know if _Dead Space _is cooler than _Bioshock_, but I love it. Going to keep playing now.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Never play scary games at one in the morning...


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N:**_ Quick updates.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Sonic fell down the stairs and fell flat on his face. I pointed and laughed at him for five minutes straight. But then karma kicked in and I got what was coming for my in training. Knuckles was my coach and the spikes on his knuckles left a nasty gash on my left arm. It hurts. A lot. It's still bandaged up too. And it's gross. I'm having a hard time writing right now because of the pain, and if I move the arm around to much it'll sting badly. I took a picture of the gash and sent it to all four of my friends.

Brendon asked "Does it hurt?"

Cyrus said "I won't ask..."

Evra said "GROSS!"

And Kura said "Nice 1. U should let me examine it"

Shad was nice though and he tried to lick the wound clean for me. I had to reject him because the gash already stung like all hell if I moved it.

Great. Sonic just told me I needed stitcthes. I never had stitches before. I'm scared. Sonic's going to take me over to the infirmary to go get them done now. Dr. Quack is going to do the stitches for me. That gives me a little relief. I like Dr. Quack.

* * *

Dear Journal,

I'm. In. Pain.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Ok, three days has passed ever since my skin was used to sew. Getting the stitches hurts, especially when they put that numbing medicine in your system via syringe. But the pain is lessening, so I'm well enough to write in my journal for a bit.

Anyway, I just came back from underwear shopping. Yeah...I wouldn't ask. What was strange was the Julie-Su and Rouge took me...I'm think I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning:

When I left Earth, I alos left most of my stuff behind me, including most of my clothes. Even though I believe I have enough clothes that I need, Sonic thinks I could use more variety. So I went on a shopping spree with him, Rouge and Julie. I had no idea why he invited those two, until we came back home to put my clothes away. Even though he was too embarrassed to admit it, Sonic was too uncomfortable with going out to help his daughter buy new panties and bras, so that's why he invited to two females. I won't even think about asking him to buy tampons for me...

ANYWAY, Julie and Rouge took me pantie shopping. And if the person who's reading this is a guy, no, we did not go into Victoria's Secret. We didn't even go to Wal-Mart. I won't even write down the name of the store since I already wrote down too much information.

But anyway, we went into the pantie store, and we all bought pieces of underwear. Most of the stuff I bought had dragons, skulls and a few hearts. I even found some white panties with "Fuck off" written all over it in pink, with little hearts all around it. They even had a Halloween special and I got a matching set. I love my new Jack-O'-Lantern underwear. And most of my underwear turned out to be thongs, which surprised me.

Ok, I'm definitely giving out too much information here. And I'm using and pen now and there's no way to erase this crap...and I don't want to use any white-out because that'd make the page look so tacky. But I won't even go into detail with what kind of bras I bought.

So yeah, when I got home, Sonic didn't even ask what I had bought. He didn't want to, and I didn't want him to. So it was a win-win situation there. I love all the new stuff I bought too. I gotta think about what I'm gonna wear as my costume soon. My school's having a costume party and I want to wear a costume that not everyone wears...Maybe I should ask Evra to help me out here.

Hey, are there any Twinkies left or did Sonic eat them all?

* * *

Oct. 27,

Hi. My name is Kura Nevras. I'm a white and black wolf with blue eyes and white hair. I only wear jeans, tennis shoes and a bone earring. My friends' are named Brendon, Cyrus, Dawn and Evra. Dawn is my best friend. I met her at school. She's nice, cool, pretty, tough, cute, awesome, epic, and so many more positive adjectives. I see her everyday. We play together in co-op mode on _Dead Space._ She loves that game. It's scary and fun.

I honestly don't know why I'm kind of writing like a six year old, but I just happened to find this notebook lying on an empty desk. The design was really cool; on the front cover was a red dragon with a black background, and on the back was a sort of cross with a smaller red dragon wrapped around it breathing fire. I found some writing in it though.

Ohhh no...I just read the front and skimmed through the pages closer this time. On the front it says "Journal: Open and Die" and the journal entries are written in Dawn's handwriting...I hope she won't get mad at me for writing in her book. I didn't mean it. It was just lying on the desk when I got to class, so I assumed it belonged to no one and picked it up. I am going to refrain from looking at her entries, since this book is hers and her private thoughts are written upon these pages.

Ok, I won't lie, my curiosity took over and I ended up looking at the last entry she wrote. Dawn, I'm so sorry...Please forgive me.

Though...I have to say, your last entry was a bit...well...random, to say the least. But even for a tomboy, she's very feminine in the underwear department. I wonder what that "matching set" of hers looks like...Better not think about it.

Okay, okay, I'll stop writing in this. I'm already in trouble since I've written in it. Oh by the way Dawn, while I'm still writing, I thought I'd take the time to ask you if you still have my pencil. The blue mechanical pencil with the Yin Yang sign all around it? If you do, do you mind giving it back? It's like, my favorite pencil. But if you lost it, it's ok. I can always use the green one you gave me. Thank you hon.

P.S. One more thing, if you feel that you gave out too much information in you last entry, then how come you just don't rip that page out? And if you don't want this one in here, you can rip this page out too. Just a thought. Ok, I'm done. Oh and sorry for dating this page. 'Kay I'm done for real. Bye.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Why didn't I think of that before? !

...And why did Kura pick up my journal anyway? I left it there because I went to the bathroom!

Heck, why did I even bring my journal with me to school? ! Ugh...I'm such an idiot sometimes...

I think I'm gonna rip out those pages.

* * *

Dear Journal,

I changed my mind. I'm going to keep both pages so I can go back and look at them when I'm older.


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N:**_ I decided to skip ahead a bit since going through each month would take too much time in my opinion. also, sorry for the late update.

* * *

Dear Journal,

I lost my diary for the last five months. I couldn't find it anywhere, so I ended up getting a new one. It's February now, but I guess I could write down the few little things that happened over that short course of time, but I'll try to keep it short.

Well, the very first thing I'm gonna say is that I saw Scourge again...Ugh...He saw me in my ninja costume on Halloween. He followed me around that day practically all night. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. I went to school in my costume and got a ton of compliments from mostly the guys and a few girls. Also, remember that guy I punched who was picking on Kura? Y'know, the fox? Well, his name is Blaine. I know this because now he has fallen head over heels for me too. Not to mention that the guy is the school jock...Anyway, I shared most of my candy with Kura after we had collected our goodies in and outside of school. I met his aunt too. She's really nice. Forgot her name though...I think it was Casandra but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I left Kura's house and started to head home when the lil' green bastard decides to show up. I decided to walk home since it was a pretty night. The moon and the stars were out, and there were a few clouds in the sky. I was going down my usual route through Station Square when he just popped out of an alley and started following me. I told him off I know a good hundred times, but he stuck to me like glue.

"Don't say a word to me," I said when I saw him. I didn't look at him, but I could tell that he was smirking.

"What? You too good for me now or what?" He was mocking me, I swear.

"Technically, and honestly, I am. I'm way better than you in so many ways that I can't even count them on my fingers or toes. Now get lost!"

"I'm really diggin' the costume, babe. I bet ya thought I wouldn't be able to recognize ya with that mask on, did ya?"

"What is it with you men? It's like, in your language, 'no' means 'yes' and 'get lost' means 'take me, I'm yours'!"

"You forgot one. 'Fuck off' means 'I can't live without you'." No wonder that never worked.

"Well, what does 'go the fuck away or else your balls will end up on a pike' mean in idiot?" Scourge actually grimaced and his eyes widened to that remark. I felt a little better.

"I never heard of that one." He said.

"Good, now shoo. You're bothering me." I kept walking, but then I realized that I was going the wrong way, so I had to double back and take the right route. If I kept going, I would have ended up in the part of the city where all of the dangerous guys hang out. Scourge happens to be one of them. Unfortunately for me, said hedgehog was on my heels so there was no way to avoid him. I would have teleported but then I get this foreboding feeling where if I tried that, he would somehow latch on to me and I would end up taking him with me. It was bad enough he was like a leech, but I wasn't about to have him go into Knothole. I can't run either. Even though I had inherited my father's speed, Scourge was also my dad's evil self. He can run as fast as I can. So I was basically stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"Have a boyfriend yet?" he randomly asks.

"No."

"Want one?"

"Hell no. Especially if you're a candidate."

"But we're made for each other, and you know this."

"Now see, that's what you _want_ to believe, and I bet you say that to every pretty girl you meet. Besides, there are other and better fish in the sea for me to catch."

"So if I'm a fish, what would I be considered as?"

"Something I wouldn't have on my dinner plate, let alone feed to a shark." He kinda looks like one if you look at him long enough.

"You have a cell phone?"

"Yea-I mean no, no I do not."

"You're lying."

"And what if I was? You're not getting my number."

"Ok, what if I gave you mine first? Would you feel comfortable then?"

"Alright, fiiiiine...you win. My number is 555...oh wait, nevermind." I actually heard that from someone at school. I wasn't expecting to use it, but it seemed fitting. And, in my opinion, that should be on a keychain, possibly a t-shirt. Yeah...a t-shirt sounds better.

"Now _there's_ a line I haven't heard yet."

"Scram!"

"But then I would have to leave you all aloooooone...And it's Halloween...and it's daaaaaark out..."

"You're not scaring me." He shrugged.

"Can't say I didn't try."

"Why would girls even consider about dating you? ! You're so friggin' annoying! Not to mention irritating, obnoxious, self-centered...You're such a dick and a jackass, you have the biggest ego known to man, very unfaithful, loud, crude, you're definitely a jerk, and-"

"Hey, hey, hey! I've heard a lot of insults in my day from plenty of girls, but now you're just goin' down the entire list! Calm down, will ya?"

"I'll calm down when you drop dead!"

"What's with you? Why are ya so angry? Am I really irritating you that much? Or is it that time of the month for you?"

"I'm irritated because-Mobian girls get their periods...?-I mean, that's none of you're business! Anyway, I'm irritated because all I want to do is go home and relax, but now I have _you_on my heels and I can't get rid of ya! You never left me alone after we met on Earth, even when I kept saying I don't want to have anything to do with you! I wouldn't date you, let alone be in the same room with ya! Hell, even if we were the last Mobians on the face of this planet, I would _die_ before I would ever think about touching you, even if our population depended on it!"

There were a few Mobians looking at us because I had spoken in a rather loud tone. Some teens "oooh"ed while the adults whispered amongst themselves. I was actually glad that a crowd had gathered, because now I had a better chance of getting away from him. I didn't;t bother with seeing his reaction to that because I was pissed, so I turned on my heels and stormed off. Luckily for me, that did the trick, and he stopped following me.

The walk home soothed my nerves greatly. It was a quiet and cool night, and Knothole was bustling with little kids running around in costumes while carrying their pumpkin baskets filled with candy. When I got home, Sonic had given his last bit of candy to some trick-or-treaters who had came to the castle. He made a joke that I should've appeared in a puff of smoke since I was a ninja.

I have smoke bombs on me. I should try that out one day.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the night with Sonic, and we stayed up watching horror movies all night. I got scared after watching one of them (Sonic did too, but he wouldn't admit it), so we ended up having a sleep over in the living room. It was fun; I felt like a little kid when I was snuggled up next to my dad in my pajamas. It makes me wish that I could have had those memories of spending time with my dad when I was little. Now I'm a teen. But I don't care. I'll always be a child at heart, and Sonic will be too.

But that pretty much sums up my Halloween.

Nothing happened in November, except Sonic burned the Thanksgiving turkey, Shad tried to eat the burned fowl and ended up getting sick so we had to take him to the vet after that, and we had to order pizza as a substitute for the turkey. Best. Thanksgiving. Ever.

A lot of stuff happened in December. Sonic and I went out the buy gifts (and we drove in his car. I never knew he had a car, but it was awesome!) at the mall. I bought everyone I knew gifts; Sonic (of course), Brendon, Cyrus, Evra, Kura, grandma and grandad, Uncle Chuck, Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese, Vanilla, Espio, Charmy, Vector, Mighty, Ray, Rotor, Rouge, Knuckles, Julie-Su, Shadow...I had no idea what to get for Shadow. Sonic told me that he wasn't a materialistic kind of guy. So what do you give a person who doesn't keep possessions? I had to do Shadow last because he was very difficult.

Sonic was also hosting a Christmas party at the castle. Everyone came over to the castle, including Kura. We exchanged our gifts while we trimmed the tree. Knuckles was the one to trim the tree, but my friends and I ducked for cover when he got his hands on those butterfly knives. We meant it as a joke, and we all shared a good laugh (except for Knuckles, obviously).

I kinda felt guilty because I bought everyone gifts except for Shadow. I honestly didn't know what to get the guy. I was embarrassed to tell him I didn't get him anything, but he just laughed it off and said that he didn't know what to get for me either. So we were both clueless about the other...

Things got wild late that night, because Vector managed to get drunk off of the egg-nog, but then we found out he was sneaking whiskey into his drink. The Chaotix had to escort him back home, because he was just a mess. Evra wanted me to get caught under the mistletoe with someone. She had a camera ready too, so I had to be on my toes to make sure I wouldn't accidentally stumble under that God forsaken cute little piece of vegetation.

Unfortunately, I wasn't careful enough. I ended up under the mistletoe with someone. Guess who it was?

Give up yet? No?

How about now? Ok, I'll tell you. It was Cyrus who ended up with me. Cyrus just happened to come over to me to help me with some of the decorations when it happened. We didn't know we were under the thing until most of the girls began to giggle like maniacs. I felt very uncomfortable kissing Cyrus...I mean, it's not like I don't like him, but he's my best friend! Cyrus felt the same way, but we had no way of getting out of the situation. Sonic kept pushing me back under the mistletoe while Cryus attempted to fly away (and failed epically). What made it worse was that everyone started chanting "kiss, kiss!" over and over again until we eventually gave in. In the end, Cyrus had to give me a quick peck on the cheek to stop the commotion, but then he avoided me for the rest of the night...It hurt my feelings a little to tell the truth.

All in all, it was a fun party. By the time everyone went home, it was after three in the morning. Sonic and I had to clean up afterwards too, and by the time we were done, it was almost four. I was so tired that I lied down on the floor with my new panda teddy gandma bought me and fell asleep. Sonic was tired too, and he used the last of his energy to get us some blankets. He was in no shape to go back to his room.

The next morning, I found out that Sonic had took a picture of me with my panda while I was still asleep and sent it to everyone (good thing he didn't put it on Facebook...yes, that exists on Mobius too). My friends saw the picture too, and they text me saying how cute I looked. I was too embarrassed that I didn't leave the house that whole day. But I got my revenge on Sonic by putting Habenaro powder in his chili when he made chili dogs. It was very entertaining to see him running around complaining on how his mouth was on fire. I had to run away from him after that. But we had fun.

That sums up my December (funny how that's an actual song and that Sonic listens to it believe it or not).

January was a bit boring, and not a lot of people had New Year's resolution. We didn't even have a party for New Years; we were worn out from the Christmas party. But I saw most of my friend's resolutions on their Facebook statuses.

Brendon: Build a plane.

Evra: Less shopping.

Cyrus: [Private]

Kura: Create my own game.

Rouge: Find the rarest diamond.

Espio: Learn the difficult Dragon Rising Kick.

Vector: Pay the rent.

Shadow: Ask for a raise at G.U.N.

Sonic: Buy Knuckles a new watch to replace the one I lost.

Knuckles: Kick Sonic's ass for losing that watch.

Julie-Su: Stop Knuckles from kicking Sonic's ass.

Dawn: Point and laugh when Sonic gets his ass kicked.

Sonic: Have Dawn grounded for two weeks for pointing and laughing at me while my ass gets kicked.

Cyrus: Provide company for Dawn when she's grounded.

Shadow: Join Dawn at pointing and laughing when Sonic gets his ass kicked.

Amy: Hit Shadow with my hammer when he's pointing and laughing at Sonic while he's getting his ass kicked by Knuckles for losing his watch.

Mighty: Point and laugh at Shadow for getting pwned by a girl with a hammer.

Tails: Heal everyone who got their asses kicked.

Kura: Figure out how this whole thing started.

Rotor: Assist Kura in figuring out how this whole thing started.

Espio: Figure out how everyone is suddenly getting their asses kicked.

Julie-Su: Convince Espio not to ask.

That was the best Facebook conversation I ever saw. I really wondered why Cyrus' first status was private. But I'm surprised I haven't seen Scourge pop up anywhere on the site. Either way, I decided to write down the conversation and save it because it was too funny. I want to go over it again one day for a good laugh.

But besides all of that, that's what happened during January. Now on to February...

* * *

_**E/N:**_ Hopefully this makes up for all the time I took off to update it. I've been very busy.


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N:**_ I hope this makes up for me missing to update this on Valentine's Day :(

* * *

Dear Journal,

I. Hate. Valentine's Day. I mean it. I hate how this is the "Singles Awareness Month" or some crap. Everyone, including my family and friends, kept telling me "Happy Valentine's Day." I seriously wanted to tell each of them to go fuck themselves. This is the stupidest holiday ever.

Well, Sonic made it a little better buy buying me some chocolate truffles. I'm a chocolate addict, and I am not ashamed to admit it. That's the only thing I like about Valentine's Day. You get a ton of chocolate, and we girls looooooove chocolate~

Anyway, I hated going to school today. Nearly 99.9% of the guys there asked me out. No joke. On top of that, Blaine was one of them. I told him off but I won't write down what I said to him because it might not be appropriate for those who are under the age of twelve and reading this.

Kura tried to be sweet though. He gave me a card and a rose saying how much he appreciated me as a friend. His confidence is coming back quickly, and he's mingling with the other kids at the school now. He has a few friends now, but not because he's friends with me. They actually accept him for who he is. I'm really happy for Kura.

A girl also has a crush on him. A baby blue Siberian husky has been eyeing him, and I see Kura eyeing her too. I even tried to get them to go out. We were sitting at our regular spot at lunch when she walked by to go to the vending machine. They made eye contact, but it was quick. The husky blushed before she hurried off, and Kura shared the same shade of pink on his face. He saw me smirking and got mad.

"What's with that look?" he demanded.

"I saw that."

"Saw what?"

"You like her, don't you? It's written all over your face!"

"I don't like her! I mean, I do but...I mean, she's cute but I don't..."

"C'mooon Kura...it's Valentine's Day! Go ask her to be your Valentine."

"No way!"

"Fine. I'll do it."

"Wait, Dawn NO!" Too late Kura. I had already gotten up and went over to the girl. Luckily for me, she was having trouble getting her change into the machine.

"Y'know you'll have to flip the coin over in order for it to go in, right?" I asked her, getting her attention. I surprised her and she spun around to look at me.

"Oh, hi Princess..." she said meekly.

"Oh come offa that! Just call me Dawn!" The baby blue husky was wearing green top with a dark blue skirt and boots. Had short baby blue hair and orange eyes. She was pretty cute, I had to admit. No wonder Kura had an eye on her!

"By the way, what's your name?" I asked her.

"Candice."

"Nice to meet ya, Candice! Anyway, I came over because I couldn't help but to notice that you were eyeing me friend back there..." Candice's ears folded back as she blushed again and looked towards the ground.

"Well...I...he...I've always see him around the school and...well..."

"Hey, no need to be embarrassed. He's been eyeing you too." She perked up instantly.

"Really?"

"Mmhmm. And he wanted to ask you if you wanted to be his Valentine, but he was too shy. So that's why I'm here."

"Does he...y'know...like me?"

"Are you kiddin'? You should have seen the way he was eyeing ya those few times! He's practically drooling over ya. I mean C'mon Candy-you don't mind if I gave ya a nickname, do you?"

"No. People call me Candy anyway."

"Well, anyway, can you blame him? I mean, look at you! I'm a princess and even I'm jealous of your looks!" She giggled.

"So, whaddya say? Wanna meet my friend?" She didn't need to think about it.

"Uh-huh!" I smiled as I led Candice back over to our table. Kura was getting nervous and fidgety. He really wanted to leave, but my glare kept him in place.

"Kura, this is Candice," I said once we were there. "Candice, this is my best friend Kura Nevras."

"Hi Kura."

"Um...h-h-he-hello...Uhm...w-would you like to sit down?"

"Yes." So the two started talking. They kept talking to each other through the whole lunch hour. I just sat there and watched, leaning on my hand and smiling. They were so cute together. They even hooked up; not kidding. When lunch ended, both canines walked out of the lunchroom hand in hand. Unfortunately, they only have one class together, which was sixth hour. So they sadly exchanged numbers and went on their way, but Kura watched her leave until she disappeared into her next class. I actually had to drag the guy into our class to break the spell. He was even texting her in class. At first I thought it was cute, but then I started to feel bitter because I was single (happily single, mind you) and I practically had every guy after me. What made it worse was that we had to read this cheesy romance novel in my English class.

After school, I told Kura to call me to let me know how his date will go and I went on my way. As I was going home, guess who I run into?

Yup. It was Scourge again. He just _had_ to come along on friggin' Valentine's Day!

"Say one word to me and I will fucking kill you." I meant that.

"Why are you grouchy on this fine day?" he asked me.

"Look, I already know where you're going with this. I'm glad I'm single and I don't gie a shit that it's Valentine's Day. It's a stupid holiday where people have an excuse to get all lovey-dovey in public and men can easily get sex." It was true if you think about it.

"Well, whaddya expect? It's a romantic holiday, ain't it?" I made a face as if I had smelled something rotten.

"If I hear anything else about romance from you..."

"What's wrong with ya, babe? We're two single hedgehogs out here on Valentine's Day...All I'm sayin' is that we have to make up for the time we had lost back on Earth...So c'mon. You and me, at the walkway at sunset. Tonight at six."

"Four words: When. Hell. Freezes. Over."

"And you wonder why I'm always after ya."

"There are other girls! Lots of girls! Lots of girls that are a lot prettier then me! Leave me alone!"

"But you're the only girl I need."

"God, where have I heard _that_ before?"

"But I mean it!" He ran in front of me and blocked my path. "I can't look at any other girl without seeing you. You're always on my mind every waking hour of the day. I always see your shimmering blue eyes whenever I look up at the sky or stare at the vast sea. Your sleek white fur is like a mirage that always torment me in my dreams. I can't live without ya Dawn. I'll follow ya to the ends of the planet if I have to. But I won't stop until you're mine."

"Was that supposed to be a poem?"

"Yeah. I fucked it up, didn't I?"

"Pretty much."

"I tried. But I meant every word."

"Suuuuure you did."

"Another reason why I like ya so much. You're so sarcastic."

"Get away from me, freak."

"Ah-ah-ah! You didn't say the magic word."

"Fine. Get the _fuck_ away from me. Is that better?"

"No."

"Too bad!" He stopped following me after a while, and I eventually made it back home. It's bad enough that I had to run into Scourge, but then Evra decides to set me up on a blind date. That little devil! I hate blind dates...And how was she even able to find a guy who was willing to go out with me? I really didn't want to go, but she's forcing me (not to mention that she's blackmailing me with that Christmas picture), so I had to go. I'm not alone though. Cyrus is supposed to be going on a blind date too.

Ugh...I gotta go tonight at 6:15. It's 5:45 now...might as well get ready to get it over with. I'll write down the details when the "date" is over.


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N:**_ Sorry if I took too long! ^^;

* * *

Dear Journal,

I have had the worst Valentine's Day ever...and the last couple of days didn't help it at all...Here's what happened:

Evra told me that the guy she found to hook up with me was waiting at the Ring Pool at 6:15. So I wore something presentable. I wore this red short sleeved shirt, and a black and red jacket. It was surprisingly warm for February. Anyway, when I got the the Ring Pool, no one was there except for Cyrus, who was sitting at the edge looking into the water. The ring Pool is a really beautiful place though...especially if you come out at night and in the summer time.

Anyway, Cyrus was just sitting there, looking bored, so I went over and sat next to him.

"Hey dudette," he said to me when I had came over. "Evra set you up on this 'blind date' thing too, huh?"

"Yup," I groaned. "I'm gonna kill her for this. How long have you been waiting here?"

"I dunno..." He checked his watch. "I'm going on a half an hour now."

"Well I just got here. We can keep each other company while we wait for our dates."

"Sounds fine to me." After that, we just started talking a lot. Catching up on old times, talking about what we've been up to in the last few months or so...It was great, just hanging out with just Cyrus. He was my first ever friend when we met in kindergarten, and we were so close back then. And then we met Brendon and Evra. Our friendship never faltered when we met those two, but we couldn't get as close to each other as we could, y'know? It was nice to just be with him.

We had spent a lot of time together just talking, but Cyrus finally realized that our "dates" should have been here by now.

"Hey, hasn't it been like an hour? Where are or dates?" he asked.

"Meh, I bet they were already in a relationship and had another date to go to."

"Eh, I would prefer it this way anyway. I would rather spend an evening wit you than some chick I don't even know."

"Same here." The sun was completely gone and it was dark out. It was a full moon out that night and with the moon reflecting off of the water of the Ring Pool, it was gorgeous. It was cold out though, and I was an idiot to wear a thin jacket. I shivered a little, and Cyrus noticed, so he wrapped his wing around me, and then wrapped his arm around my waist and brought my body closer to his.

"My fur's thicker than yours," he said. "I'll keep ya warm until we go home." I really appreciated the gesture; the damn jacket was doing diddly-squat for me. I didn't know I had laid my head on his shoulder until I felt him move after a few minutes. Cyrus and I used to do this all of the time when we were still human. I always thought of it as a friendly gesture...that is, until now.

We didn't talk much for a while until Cyrus said my name to get my attention. I lifted my head from my shoulder and looked at him, and his eyes looked glazed a little, or that was probably just me seeing things thanks to the light reflecting from the Ring Pool.

He said "Hey...Dawn?"

"Yeah?"

"You're...you're a great person, y'know that?"

"Most of the time." He smiled, and then he started to lean in closer to me. Me, being an idiot, didn't know what he was doing and I thought he was going to give me a hug...until I felt our lips practically make contact with each other. And that's when things started going downhill.

Since I really didn't know what to do, and I was so surprised that Cyrus felt this way about me, I ended up pushing him away. This shocked us both, and Cyrus was staring at me with his eyes wide, and I could clearly see the hurt in them. I didn't even know why I pushed him; I didn't mean it. I guess it was a natural reflex I developed ever since Scourge got into the picture. But, to make matter worse, when I tried to apologize, Cyrus got up and walked off pretty quickly. I got up too and tried to follow him, but when he heard me call his name, he started running, and actually flew off.

I felt horrible after that, so I went home while sulking.

Things became worse when I got home. I made sure I didn't allow Sonic to see me when I came in and was able to sneak up to my room, but when I got there, my cell phone started to ring. It was Evra's number.

"Hello..?"

"WHAT HAPPENED? ! WHAT DID YOU DO TO CYRUS? ! HE CALLED US BOTH AND HE WAS CRYING! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM? !" And then she started yelling at me telling me how Cyrus has always been there for me and how we were such good friends, how badly I hurt Cyrus' feelings, and then she said that she was doing me a favor.

"Doing me a favor? How were you doing me a favor by setting me up with my best friend? !"

"Cyrus has always liked you ever since 4th grade, and THIS is how you repay him? ! Y'know, ever since you found out Sonic's your dad and you're a princess, you've been so stuck-up! I bet you think the whole world revolves around you, don't you? You think you're so special, huh?"

"I never said that, nor did I think that! Here's the thing Evra; 1. I don't appreciate you trying to get involved in my love life, EVEN if I don't have one, and 2-"

"So that's it, huh? You just wanna tell me what I can and can't do, like always? I was just trying to help! You two were so close together, even before you met Brendon and I! Cyrus didn't need to pour his heart out to you, and yet, you push him away like he's nothing? What kind of friend are you? !"

"But I didn't mean-"

"Listen here _princess,"_The way she said it stung. "You won't have to worry 'bout me, or even Brendon or Cyrus getting in your 'love life' anymore. you can just sit up there on your high throne, snap your fingers and get whatever you want! You don't need us anymore!" And then she hung up. That was the first time Evra had had an outbursts on any of us, as far as I know. It was really a shocker to hear her yell at me, and then the things she said really hit me like a train.

At first, I just stood there looking down at my phone. But then Cyrus' words started to ring in my head...

_"You're a great person..."_ Yeah right...

I felt horrible. In in sad rage, I ended up throwing my phone at the wall, and it actually broke into pieces. And it was loud; by this point, I could care less if Sonic heard that or not. And then I threw myself onto my bed and started sobbing. I never thought I was acting stuck-up...Did Evra really mean that, or did that come out by accident because she was so angry? I really couldn't tell, but it sounded like she meant that. Have I really been acting stuck-up? I only act like that on purpose when I'm around people I don't like. Blaine and Scourge are two of them...but I never treated my friends any different...I was able to give Kura his confidence back, and I even got him a girlfriend! But...now that I thought about it, I knew Brendon liked Evra but kept my mouth shut. I thought Brendon would just gain the courage to tell Evra himself. But he didn't. Instead Scourge had to do it. And Cyrus has always been there for me, always have. Hell, even after I completely transformed on Earth, he was the first on the scene to help me from Scourge, even if I was a four foot tall talking white hedgehog now. And then that time when we were in the castle, he tried to defend me from Scourge again, and nearly got his wings cut off! He risked his life for me twice, and not to mention all of the times we got in trouble when we were human. He would take the downfall...

Evra was right...

I haven't really done anything for Cyrus, or even Brendon or Evra! I was only there for Kura; I've been a real friend to him and not _my_ friends...And then when Cyrus finally gained the courage to tell (or show) how he really felt, what do I do? I push him. Some friend I am...And I'm _such_ a great person, huh?

My pillow's practically soaked with tears now. The pillow case is all wet, cold and salty...Very uncomfortable. And then Sonic came in. He called my name at first, but when he sees I wasn't going to answer, he comes over, sits on the bed, places his hand on my back and shakes me a little.

"Dawn, Dawn what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"Cyrus...m-my friends...*hic* I...I'm stuck-up and-"

"Wait a minute, calm down first, and tell tell me what happened." After taking a few deep breaths, I told Sonic what had happened so far. The blind date with Cyrus, how I pushed him, when Evra yelled at me, when I threw my phone, how bad I felt and up to now. Sonic listened to everything I said, but looked concerned when I finished.

"Well, as bad as this is going to sound, you'll have to put a hold on Brendon, Evra and Kura. They'll have to wait. Who you should be worried about is Cyrus. If you want to get things straightened out, you better start with him. It'd be a bad idea to start now, so wait it out a little."

"But, Son-Dad, what Evra said about me is true!"

"What do you mean?"

"Well...remember when I told you she said that I was stuck-up? Well...I believe her...I mean, I never really been there for my friends, even when I was human. And Cyrus would practically give his life up for me and this is how I repay him! And then he said I was such a great person when we were at the Ring Pool..." And then I started crying again, this time on Sonic's chest and not my pillow. He let me cry until I eventually fell asleep.

Nothing really changed the next day. Sonic took my phone to Tails' place so he could try and fix it...I didn't bother with going to school that day. I felt too bad to even leave my room. Shad was the only one who kept me company. He laid tere next to me on my bed. He looks as sad as I do. Sonic came back hours later with my phone fixed. It was as good as new. But then he started to get worried when he saw that I hardly moved when he left. I wouldn't eat either. I felt too sick to eat. I thought that if I tried to eat something, I'd vomit it back up again. He figured that this was something I had to deal with on my own and eventually left, but he kept checking up on me from time to time.

It was later that evening when my phone went off. I had got some text messages from everyone. I got two from Brendon, two from Candice (Kura gave her my number), fivefrom Cyrus, three from Evra, and two from Kura. I didn't reply to any of them, or even look at them. I would get up and check and see of they wrote me on Facebook too, but I couldn't find the energy to do so. That was the longest day in my life.

Now, today, I was just able to get up and write down what happened those last two days. I'm done after this. Going back to lay down and and wallow in my own misery...No, scratch that. I'm going into the kitchen and eating a crap load of comfort food (lots of chocolate, ice cream, candy, chips, cake...more chocolate...).


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N:**_The original chapter for this ended up getting deleted because when I tried to save, FanFiction said that my 3 days were up and I had to log back in, so I had to do the entire chapter over again -_- But, I'm kinda glad I did. I think this one is better than the old one I got.

* * *

Dear Journal,

I was kidnapped. Cyrus and I are dating now. Here's what happened:

It was the third or fourth day of my depression when I decided to leave the castle for a bit and get some fresh air to clear my head. I walked aimlessly around Station Square for a bit, but that's all I can recall before I was grabbed, dragged into an alley and drugged with chloroform.

When I woke back up, the first sense that came back to me was my sense of smell. There was this horrible stench of either 1. rotting meat 2. a corpse beginning to decay 3. something died recently or 4. all of the above. I really hoped it was 5. none of the above. It was really dark, wherever I was. But then my eyes started to adjust and I could make out the light coming in from a few windows around the room. The place was in bad condition; there was trash everywhere, the paint was chipping, most os the windows were broken, and it really stinks. And then I noticed that I was tied up in a chair. And someone was in the room with me; he was squatting in front of me in fact, looking at me wit interest. Guess who it was? It was an echidna with a hoodie. It was the same echidna that tried to kidnap me before. But now his hood was down, and I could see more detail to him. his eyes were grey-blue, he had a scar under his right eye, and had some sort of tribal tattoo on his left dreadlock. What made it worse was that the guy was very close to my age.

"Well, this is just _lovely,"_Hey, I wanted to say something snarky since my mouth wasn't taped shut. But what creeped me out was that the guy's smile grew wider, but it was more demented like.

"Well, now I'm glad I didn't gag you when I brought you in here," he said in hoarse voice. "At first I wasn't sure that if I wanted to hear you talk, but I do now. You seem very interesting."

"Why does it stink in here? Did something die?"

"Maybe." I did not like the way he said that at all. He made it sound too casual. and then I suddenly got an urge to look to my left, but I regretted doing so afterwards. There was a body lying up against the wall. I couldn't tell who, or what it was since it was partly covered with a torn blanket. There were a lot of flies flying around the corpse, and I could already tell that there were maggots growing and feasting on the decaying flesh on the inside. That body has been there for a while now, but the very thought of that made me want to hurl.

"I see you met Paige," he suddenly said. "She was my recent favorite. But then I guess her body couldn't take anymore of it, and I ended up killing her. I would have put her away with the rest of the girls, but I liked her. I couldn't let her go."

"YOU'RE SICK!" I yelled at him; he laughed at my outburst. It was one of those demented laughs where someone gets a pleasure seeing you upset or something. "How could you do that to that poor girl, let alone leave her there to rot and let flies and maggots eat at her corpse? And then you're living in here with it? !"

"I wanted to see her face a little longer."

"If you're thinking about doing the same thing with me, I swear to God I'll use Chaos Blast and blow you into oblivion while you're being burned alive!" His smile only grew wider.

"I _was_ thinking about doing that," he said while reaching over to move my bang away from my face, but I jerked my head away. "But then I changed my mind after I realized who you were. You're the king's daughter, are you not? You're worth a lot, I know. I could hold you for ransom and get a lot of money from you." I really hate my princess status now. "But now that I think about it, there was a green hedgehog looking for you too. He hired me to grab you and sell him to you if I ever caught you. He's giving me more than a half of a million rings for you." That sorry son of a..."But, I don't think I'll be turning you in to him. You're my new favorite, so I just might keep you for myself."

While he was talking, I was able to get a hold of my Communicator and turned on the microphone. Hopefully, everyone, mostly Sonic, was able to hear the conversation and are getting a signal about my current location. At first, I wasn't able to reach it, but I used my claws to cut through the ropes just enough for me to reach me sophisticated wrist watch.

"My name is Korie by the way. Right now, I'm renting myself to one of the rooms to the old apartment complex on the west side of Station Square that mysteriously caught fire, burn and killed more than twenty people." I raised my eyebrow at him. "Surprised to hear that from me? Well, you have no hope of escape. Unless you plan on turning into a ghost and telling your friends and family, I just figured i could give you an inkling about where you are, and what's eventually going to happen to you."

"Not on my watch," I growled. "I don't need to wait for someone to rescue me. I can get out of this myself."

"If that's what you want to believe." He stood up and walked over to the window to look out of it for whatever reason. While he was distracted, I furiously cut at the rope with my claws until they finally came loose and I was freed. I stood up and was ready to give Korie a good beating, but then I took the time out to look at my Communicator. There were four multicolored dots homing in to the center of the screen. One of blue, the other was dark red, one was dark orange, and one was brick red. They stood for Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles and surprisingly Cyrus. I was about to move, but I just happened to look at Paige again. Her body was too damaged for me too see detail into her, but I could just make out that she was either a fox or a cat with brown fur. Poor, poor girl...No telling what kind of Hell she went through while being held hostage with that psychopath. In the end, death was a blessing. But then she had to leave all of her friends and family behind. I bet that they wanted to keep believing that their best friend, daughter, niece and granddaughter was still alive. I felt very sorry for those unfortunate people. And what about those "other girls" he was talking about? Where was he keeping them?

"What do you think you're doing?" I whipped my head around to see Korie glaring at me. Now i was my turn to get a smug look.

"I'm getting the hell outta here, that's what I'm doing!"

"Not on my watch..." He then charge, but was blown back by a red force that looked a little like spiraling wind. I turned in that direction to see a very familiar dark brown bat with semi-long sandy blonde hair and hazel eyes standing in front of an old open door.

"Stay the hell away from my girl you prick," he growled. I have never been so glad to see Cyrus. I was just about to run over to him and give him a hug when I froze; since when am I _his_ girl? Korie got back on his feet, and his attention was now on Cyrus.

"Get out," Korie scowled.

"Make me," Cyrus retorted. Korie's scowl got deeper as he charged at Cyrus with his fist ready to deliver a punch. But Cyrus was quicker, and he used his wings to propel himself upward, and then came down with his foot stretched out and kicked Korie in the back of his head, sending him flying into the hallway Cyrus appeared from. Cyrus landed stylishly, and then got into a stance and spread his wings out wide. And then a light blue glow surrounded his wings.

"Gemini's Wind!" He flapped his wings again, this time with more force, and two waves of light blue energy escaped his wings and raced down the hallway. Korie had somehow gotten to his feet, but was shot back down thanks to Cyrus' attack. He let out a pained screamed as he was blown back again, but then he hit the wall at the end of the hallway and went unconscious as he fell to the floor. Cyrus then stood up straight and dusted himself off as if something so simple had happened, but then he stopped for a minute and sniffed at the air.

He mumbled "Did something die in here?" before he shook it off, turned towards me and started walking over with a blank look on his face.

"That was so cool!" I exclaimed as I jumped up a little. "Where'd you-" Cyrus suddenly grabs both of my arms, pulls me too him and kissed my like mad. It wasn't a French kiss, but it was one of those passionate kisses you see in romance movie towards the end. And it felt a lot like some sort of old action flick where the hero saves the damsel from the bad guy, the hero and bad guy fight it out, the hero wins, and the hero and damsel share a kiss at the end. But then it felt like this was something he was building up for a long time and finally got the chance to release it. Either way, it didn't matter; Cyrus was a helluva kisser! He eventually release my arms and held on to my waist while I placed my hands on his shoulders. I'm not even sure how long we stayed lip-locked, I'll say a minute, before Cyrus suddenly pushed me back a little. I wondered why he did that at first, but then I heard a lot of rushed footsteps in the hallway. And then Sonic appeared in the door. He asked if we were okay, and we said yes. And then he escorted us both out of the building. I saw police officers handcuffing Korie and dragging him out of the building and loaded him into a squad car. Some police officers also collected Paige's body from the room I was being held in. Sonic and Cyrus to escort me home while he, Shadow and Knuckles handled things with Korie's case. Apparently Korie was wanted for several kidnaps, rapes and murders. I'll have to appear in court with Sonic tomorrow to press charges. Apparently his charges were already heavy since he's charged with kidnapping, sexual assault and first degree murder. But now since he kidnapped a member of the royal family, his charges were tripled. He could get either life in prison without parole or the death penalty, and the guy's only seventeen!

Cyrus flew us both out of Station Square, but when we got back to Knothole, he landed and we walked the rest of the way back. It was silent for a moment, but then I decided to break the ice.

"Okay, I'll say. Um...what the heck was that back there?" We stopped for a minute and Cyrus turned towards me.

"Well, everyone's been training me quite and bit, and I learned-"

"Not that! The kiss!"

"Oh. Well, that was your apology." I made a face at him, but then he just winked at me and I ended up smiling without trying to.

"So...that was my way of saying 'sorry about what happened at the Ring Pool'?"

"Well, not really. I had already forgiven you. That was just your apology for missing out on something good." I stared at him blankly while he grinned. And then he came over to me again and wrapped his arms around my waist. "So tell me; is it official, or do you need to think about it some more?" Surprisingly, I knew what he was talking about.

"Well, it was obvious to me that you made it official when you 'rescued' me." Cyrus grinned again, but this time he revealed his new sharp canines that made him look like a vampire a little. He leaned in and we shared another kiss, but it was interrupted when we heard someone go "awww" in the background. We both withdrew to see Brendon, Evra and Kura standing there watching.

"Hey! This isn't a public performance!" Cyrus said wryly. Brendon and Kura laughed while Evra ran over to me and gave me a death hug. She began sobbing and telling me how sorry she was for saying those things to me over the phone and how worried she was about me when I was kidnapped. I told her I was fine, and she eventually let go. We spent the rest of the day hanging out; I told them what happened to me and how Cyrus came in and acted all awesome, and he explained that Rouge and Knuckles helped him tap into his inner power. He apparently has the ability to use the powers of the astrological signs. He's getting better at flying too, so that's how he was able to carry me back to Knothole. I went home near eight, and Cyrus walked me home. We shared another kiss before I went back inside, and I was feeling very happy at that point. Sonic gave me a look when he saw me going back to my room humming, but I didn't care. I went straight to my computer and logged on to my Facebook page. When there, I changed my status to "I was just kidnapped and then I had to most epic kiss of my life," and then, with joy, I changed my relationship status from "Single" to "In a Relationship."

* * *

_**E/N: **_I've never been on Facebook so I don't really know the whole layout of it, but I tried.


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N: **_Sorry for the long update! See, I've been having problems with FF; everytime I try to edit/update my stories, it would take me to an error page, and this has been going on for a while now and I couldn't correct it, until now. So expect a LOT of updates form me. But this chapter's going to be very, VERY short due to that. Once again, so sorry for the delay!

* * *

Dear Journal,

Something's going on around Knothole...Everyone's acting so secretive around me and they won't say anything. I won't be back until I find out what's going on.

Oh yeah, my relationship with Cyrus was good at first, but now I feel like our friendship isn't the same...I dunno, maybe I'm just nervous because this is my first relationship. I'll ask Sonic about it later.

P.S. Shadow took me out to eat the other day. Don't know why he did that, but when I asked, he just shrugged and said "I wanted to know you more." But I'm not complaining. The place he took me to had the best food ever (especially their deserts...Ahhh French Silk chocolate cake...how I miss you so~)!


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N: **_I decided to redo this chapter since it didn't seem to fit. I'll probably put the original content in _"Royal Quills."_

* * *

Dear Journal,

How long has it been? A week? I've lost track...Anyway, I told Cyrus on how I was feeling about our relationship. He looked troubled and said that he had been feeling the same way too. He really wants us to be in a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship, but it doesn't feel right to us at all. I told him not to worry about it, but he didn't want to. I was worried too...

Then we met at the Ring Pool again and after a VERY long talk, we broke up. I won't even go into detail on what we talked about, it'd be too painful for me to write down.

I don't feel at all well...I think I'm gonna lay down for a bit or talk to Sonic about it. Maybe that'll cheer me up a little.


	11. Chapter 11

Dear Journal,

Everyone quickly noticed something wasn't right when I went on my Facebook earlier. I had a crapload of comments from everyone (except Sonic since I already told him what happened, but he commented a bit when he needed to). I guess they knew something wasn't right when my status suddenly went from "In a relationship" to "Single." I'll write down the comments I saw, or at least most of them.

Evra: OMG! What happened? You Broke up?

Brendon: Who broke up with who?

Kura: Are you ok Dawn? Cyrus told me you two broke up.

Amy: Awww! Why did you break up? You two were so cute together!

Rouge: Hon, he broke up with you, didn't he?

Cyrus: I DID NOT!

Julie-Su: Whoa, calm down Cyrus...It's not that serious.

Evra: What are you saying? They were so close!

Tails: I'm kinda with Julie here. It's not really a big deal.

Espio: Not all relationships are meant to be, you know.

Cyrus: Right. And apparently ours was one of them.

Amy: Can you at least tell us what happened?

Shadow: Just leave the girl alone. If she doesn't want to talk about it, then don't force her to. This is a personal matter between her and Cyrus, and we should just stay out of it and let them handle it themselves.

Dawn: You don't need to defend me Shadow...

Sonic: Shadow DOES have a good point you guys. This isn't our business.

Rouge: I just want to make sure she's okay.

Kura: Yeah, but maybe we're overdoing it a bit.

Julie-Su: Kura's right.

Evra: ...

Brendon: But it's only been three weeks...

Dawn: Look, since you guys are so concerned, I told Cyrus that I felt like our relationship was hindering our friendship, and he told me he felt the same way. So we talked at the Ring Pool yesterday, and we both came to the conclusion that it wasn't meant to be, so we broke up. There!

Cyrus: It goes WAAAY deeper than that, but that's between me and her.

Shadow: How you two even broke up wasn't any of our concerns in the first place...

Amy: You're just saying that because you know you would never get a girlfriend.

Kura: That was so mean...

Knuckles: It's true though.

Evra: Where did you come from?

Dawn: I would date Shadow if I ever got the chance. And I'm not saying that to make him feel better. In fact, I know he doesn't even care.

Rouge: I bet that's the REAL reason you two broke up, isn't it? You have feelings for Shadow, don't you?

Everyone who commented: :O

Dawn: NO I DON'T!

Sonic: Then why are you getting so defensive about it?

Evra: Ooooh~ Dawn has a secret~

Dawn: LEAVE ME ALONE!

Cyrus: Dawn, if ya liked Shadow, you could have just said so :P

Dawn: WHY ARE YOU SAYING THAT? WE JUST BROKE UP YOU DOLT!

Amy: She totally likes Shadow.

Kura: Yeah, totally.

Julie-Su: Dawn and Shadow sitting in a tree~

Brendon: K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

Shadow: Leave her alone!

Knuckles: Defending your girlfriend, eh Shadow?

Tails: Just go out already.

Espio: I'm not trying to sound like a smart-ass, but I thought Shadow wouldn't have cared about any of this? In fact, why would he be commenting about this at all? And why would he stick up for Dawn in the first place? And the fact that Dawn is yelling at us in all caps and sounding offended means that our speculations are correct.

Sonic: See? It doesn't take a genius to figure it out, and Espio gave a scientific explanation for it. So, in conclusion, you two like each other.

Dawn: I DON'T LIKE SHADOW! I mean, I like him as a friend but that's it!

Kura: Suuuure...you're friiiiiiends...

Candice: Omg! I just got here and I find out all of this! Dawn, you really like Shadow?

Rouge: She does. If she denies it, she's lying.

Amy: Look at the other comments and see for yourself.

Dawn: You know what? SCREW YOU GUYS!

Shadow: Yeah, I'm out of here...

I think I wrote down a bit too much...That conversation went into an entirely new direction, all because of a joke. Now everyone thinks that I like Shadow (which I do NOT), and I don't even think I'll be able to clear that up. And now that Candice and Kura were in the conversation, it's gonna spread all over Facebook and reach my school...

It's official. My life sucks...

* * *

**_E/N:_** So sorry for all of that scripted text. But I like using Facebook conversations for comedy now, even though I don't even go onto the site, nor do I have an account there. But this also clears up a few questions a friend of mine had.

Next chapter will be up soon! And if you review, don't be mean please. But remember, you don't have to review. You can if you want, but don't let me force you.


	12. Chapter 12

Dear Journal,

No one got over the Facebook conversation and they're teasing me about it. In then end, I just said screw it and went to Central City since it was further away from Knothole and Station Square. Central City was smaller than Station Square, and there wasn't a lot to do there. They just had a few shops and eater places, nothing too exciting. In the end, I went back to Station Square. The place looked a lot like the design in _Sonic Adventure DX_, but it was way bigger. I wanted to go to Emerald Coast, but I also wanted to go into Twinkle Park since I never been in there before. I wanted to see if it looked like anything like the game.

So, after getting a few directions from some of the residents, I went there. And guess who was standing outside of it? No, it wasn't Scourge (thank God). It was Shadow, the other person I really didn't want to see.

It was sort of awkward bumping into him, especially after what happened on Facebook. But I didn't want to avoid him either. In fact, for some odd reason, I was drawn to him. And no, that didn't meant that I was attracted to him (well, he _is_ attractive, but I was more of a Sonic fangirl when I was human. What I felt was very different from attraction). As I said before, he's my friend, even if I didn't know him that well.

I started to noticed that mostly everyone wears clothes now. Shadow usually wears dark jeans and a jacket, or just jeans if it's nice out. He was wearing a jacket today, but it was very thin since it was a warm summer day. We made small talk when I went up to him, mostly about the Facebook conversation and how everyone acted like total pricks. And then we went on to other stuff that wasn't really related to the matter. I was surprised on how much we had in common. And then he asked me something.

"You want to go in?" I looked at him before I looked at the entrance to the park itself.

"I want to," I replied "but how come there doesn't seem to be anything on the other side?"

"That's just a ruse. When you go into the actual park, it's very impressive." That's when I _really_ wanted to go in. I think Shadow saw my eagerness since he said he would take me in there since the park was very big on the inside, and I could get lost easily. So we both went in.

The inside of the park was amazing; it was WAY better than the game! There were a lot of Mobian kids and teens running around, going on the rides, playing games and buying snacks for souvineirs. Shadow and I walked around the place for a bit, not really trying to go anywhere in particular. Still, I think Shadow was amused on how excited I acted while in the place. I mean, it looked impressive in the game, but no words can describe how it looks in real life. It was like we stepped into an entirely different world!

We had passed a Ring Toss game, and I saw this baby blue dragon plush hanging up on the ceiling of the booth. As long as I could remember, I always loved stuffed animals, especially canine and dragon plushes. I really wanted it, and Shadow saw that and asked if I wanted him to win the plush for me.

"I could get it myself," I told him. "You don't have to get anything for me."

"But what if you lose?" he pressed.

"I could always try again." He laughed a bit.

"No offense, but I think I have better aim than you."

"My aim is fine!"

"Oh really? Well, remember when we were in the White Jungle? You were supposed to used your Chaos Spear to hit a target that was _clearly_ in front of you, but instead you missed completely and you hit a bird. And must I mention that the bird was high in a tree sevral yards away, to the far right, not even near the target?"

"At least I didn't kill the bird!" Shadow rolled his eyes and laughed again.

"Just let me play and I'll win the toy for you."

"Hmph! Fine! But because of that remark, I hope you miss." Shadow gave me a look before he paid the guy in the booth to play. He was given five multicolored rings. You just had to get at least one ring around a bottle in order to win, but apparently one wasn't enough for Shadow. He managed to get all five rings around one bottle and won, but I knew he was showing off. Regardless, I got the plush so I was happy. It even served as a little backpack!

We walked around the park some more; Shadow was just showing me around so I could know my way around if I ever came back on my own. I didn't want to get on the rides just yet; I wanted to wait until I got my bearings of the place before I go on an adrenaline rush. I think we were in the park for more than an hour, but I honestly couldn't tell. We eventually left and we went back to Knothole since there was nothing else to do. Shadow said he had work to do at G.U.N. so he left. I went home, and Sonic noticed my new toy and asked where I got it from. I didn't want to tell him that Shadow won it for me in Twinkle Park because that would just fuel the rumor, so I told him I saw it in a store while I was walking around and I wanted it. Luckily for me, he bought it.

So now I'm sitting in my room writing in my journal right now. I don't want to go on Facebook for a while because I don't want half of my journal pages to be filled with Facebook dialogue. Blech...I'm so bored right now...I think I'm going to play "_Bioshock"_ some more.

* * *

Dear Journal,

School's almost out for Spring Break, and I have to study for my exams next week. I can ace each one, but it's my Algebra exam I have to study for. It's not that I'm bad in Algebra, but I've been slacking off a bit and I've fallen behind a little, so I gotta study. I could ask Sonic but he doesn't know a lot about Algebra. I could ask Brendon but he's helping Evra with her exams. Cyrus is horrible in Algebra, and Kura is helping Candice. I still have a week left so I should find someone to help me study before then.

Anyway, I played hide-and-seek with Sonic a little while ago. It didn't start out that way because I decided to play with him for a bit after I spotted him on the couch looking bored. So I flicked at his ear and hid behind the couch whenever he turned around. He eventually caught on to my tricks and I had to run and hide from him. After that, it turned into the game.

The castle was big, so there were a lot of places to hide in, but Shad didn't make it that fun since he kept sniffing us out of our hiding places. We decided to stop playing after four roundsand Sonic watched me play _"Bioshock"_ that night. We even turned out all of the lights just to make it scary. I ended up freaking out after a while and I slept with Sonic that night while clutching my dragon plush. The three of us (Shad slept with us too) were all nice and cozy in Sonic's bed. He's really warm; I learned this when I slept with him one winter day when the furnace went out.

Oh yeah, I recently found out that Scourge has a Facebook but hardly uses it. In fact, he deleted it a little while ago.

I gotta take Shad for a walk again. Be right back.

* * *

Dear Journal,

There are bunnies in me backyard! Eeeeeeeee!

* * *

Dear Journal,

Shad scared the bunnies away...I would be mad at him, but Sonic took me in the backyard where the bunnies were. He had a bag filled with mixed vegetables, seeds and a little bit of fruit. So we went in the backyard and we sat on the grass (by the way, our backyard has a bit pool, but it's mostly surrounded by forests, so there are a lot of animals that come in it). I asked Sonc what we were doing out here, but he just said that he wanted to enjoy the nice spring day. And then I brought up the fact he had a bag full of food and wasn't eating it, and he told me he was "waiting to give it to a friend of his."

And then the bunnies came back. I started to get excited, but Sonic told me to remain calm and be still for a bit. I did as I was told, but then he suddenly went into his bag and pulled out a handful of seeds and held it out towards the bunnies; they were cautiously coming towards us, but were still a few yards away. And then Sonic made these soft clicking noises and the bunnies came right over and began to eat the seeds! It looked like they knew Sonic.

Sonic gave me some of the lettuce and carrots and let me feed the family of bunnies (a male and female, and three babies). And then he pointed to a bunny that was white and had black spots and with blue eyes.

"I found this one in the backyard one day. It was injured by a fox or a wild dog. It was mauled and close to death, but somehow still alive. So I took it in and nursed it back to health. But it was still young, so I acted as a surrogate parent until it was old enough to surive on its own. Once grew up, I released it back into the wild. But he never left; I found out he made a nest near here. Since then, I would come out regularly and feed him."

"So he knows you, right?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Right," Sonic replied. "And he let me come near his family. When I saw him out here, I thought it would only be fair to let you get to know my friends." The baby bunnies were having fun hopping and playing around Sonic, and the parents were getting to know me more. I had fun feeding the bunnies, but they eventually left to go back to their nest. I was sad that they left, but Sonic said they would come back. I would ask if I could keep one, but they were wild rabbits, even if one of them lived with Sonic for a while.

But it seemed fitting that we ran into rabbits since its close to Easter. I wonder if the bunny Sonic raised is secretly the Easter Bunny...

Hey, if Easter's coming up, that meant more candy! Awesome~

Ugh...I gotta do some chores. Be back later. I hope.

* * *

**_E/N:_** Quick updates are quick, eh?


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** Well, this took a while. I apologize for all of the scripted text and the random Pokemon topic, buuut all of this came off of the top of my head. I promise to lessen the Facebook chats/chatroom chats a bit as I go further.

* * *

Dear Journal,

I was updating my status on Facebook earlier, and it dawned to me that I never wrote down everyone's usernames. I might as well write them down now that I remembered...

TheKing167 is Sonic (I'm dead serious).

WhiteDragon90 is me.

Bunny_Luv77 is Evra (I should have known).

Book_Worm12 is Brendon.

RockGod_393 is Cyrus.

TimberWolf75 is Kura.

BabyBlueGoddess is Candice.

MasterGuardian90 is Knuckles (obviously).

Pink_Legion is Julie-Su.

WielderofChaos5 is Shadow.

Lovely_Rosie999 is Amy.

TechFox34 is Tails (who else would it be?).

Diamond45 is Rouge.

Ninja_Star is Espio.

Croc_Rock60 is Vector.

ArmoredWarrior55 is Mighty.

I found Silver and Blaze too. Silver's username is "GoldenEyes003," and Blaze's username is "GoldenCrown099." Their names were unintentionally alike, but they decided to stick with them anyway.

Anyways, those are the only ones I could find at the moment. I haven't been able to find everyone else's just yet, but I'll write them down later when I find them. And I found out that Scourge made a new account too. His old one was "Green_Flame665," but now it's "LoversBane." I'm surprised he hasn't sent me a friend invite yet. But that's a good thing; maybe he doesn't know my username just yet.

And I looked at his page just for the laughs; 99.9% of his friends are females. I saw a fewguys here and there, but not many. Most of his female friends are girls I know from my school. Just to be safe, I might block him from my page so he won't find out what my Facebook account is. I just hope I'm not too lazy or somehow forget to do so later.

Oh yeah, I just remembered why I started writing in my journal in the first place. Apparently, Evra found a Pokemon Quiz (we were all Pokemon fans growing up, but I was the only Sonic fan back then) while she was browsing and sent it to everyone. When we finished, we had to put what kind of Pokemon we are on our statuses. I looked to see what everyone else got before I took the quiz. Here's what I found out so far:

Sonic is a Floatzel (which is very ironic since Sonic hates water).

Tails is a Noctowl.

Knuckles is a Gyrados (HA!).

Amy is a Skitty.

Julie-Su is a Milotic.

Shadow is an Absol.

Espio is an Espeon (wow...)

Vector is a Feraligator (once again, wow).

Mighty is a Machoke.

Rouge is a Persian.

Silver is a Lugia (somehow).

Blaze is a Ninetails.

Evra is a Lopunny (honestly...).

Brendon is a Gallade.

Cyrus is a Typlosion.

Kura is a Mightyena.

Candice is a Glaceon.

Scourge is a Houndoom (yes, even he took it).

And I'm somehow an Umbreon (I reeeally wanted to be a dragon-type, but it's ok I suppose. It's better than taking a Twilight quiz). Afterwards, Evra begged all of us to go to a chatroom she found so we could roleplay as our Pokemon just for the hell of it. I refused for a minute, but then I found out everyone else joined, so I joined for shits-n'-giggles. Buuut I wasn't the one who had the last laugh...Here's what happened after I logged on:

Dawn: Ok, I'm here.

Evra: Yay!

Shadow: Ah, Dawn, you're here.

Mighty: You're in love with that girl, aren't ya? You're practically the first one to see that she entered the chat!

Shadow: Insert deep sighing here...

Sonic: Hehehe...anyway, Evra was just telling us that you three used to roleplay all the time on Earth, Kiddo. What did you guys roleplay about?

Dawn: Vampires, Pokemon, wolves, anthros, stuff like that. Usually we just roleplay randomly, but we do make up our own storyline and follow it each time we roleplay, but it depends.

Kura: Brendon told us that we can roleplay anyway we want to, we just gotta reply to someone using an action or quote.

Cyrus: That's pretty much it, but we need characters. Well, to tell the truth, when we were still human, we roleplayed as ourselves too, but we gave ourselves powers and stuff.

Evra: It's really fun! Wanna join?

Candice: I think it'll be fun. I never did this before.

Amy: Me either.

Julie-Su: Are there any specific rules?

Dawn: No; it's a free-for-all, really.

Sonic: But no sexual activities, got it?

Dawn: Yes Dad...

Evra: Okokok! Let's get started!

Tails: Wait! What are we roleplaying as?

Knuckles: Evra said we could roleplay as the Pokemon we are on the quiz.

Silver: I don't know a lot about Pokemon...

Espio: Me either...

Sonic: The rest of us do. We did some research.

Dawn: If you guys want to, for those who don't know about Pokemon can sit this out until get feel comfortable while the rest of us play.

Rouge: Sounds fine to me.

Dawn: Everyone remember what types and what Pokemon they are?

Sonic: I'm a...shudder...I'm a water type...Floatzel...

Tails: I'm a flying-normal type; Noctowl!

Knuckles: Water-flying, Gyrados.

Amy: Normal type! Skitty!

Julie-Su: Water type, Milotic.

Rouge: Normal type; Persian.

Shadow: Sigh...Dark type. Absol.

Cyrus: Fire type, Typlosion.

Brendon: Fight-psychic type; Gallade.

Evra: Lopunny! Normal!

Kura: Mightyena. Dark type.

Candice: Ice type, Glaceon.

Scourge (we did NOT know that was him!): Fire-dark type, Houndoom.

Blaze: Fire type, Ninetails.

Mighty: Fighting type, Machoke.

Espio: Espeon, psychic type.

Vector: Water type, Feraligator.

Silver: Lugia, psychic/flying, legendary.

Dawn: Dark type, Umbreon.

Sonic: Ok, that's everybody. Can we get started now?

Cyrus: Yup.

Kura: Hey, I just found out that Umbreon and Absol can breed.

Dawn: CAN YOU GUYS GET OFF THAT? !

Julie-Su: Why are you so defensive about it? It was a joke.

Dawn: Ok, you know what? If you guys are gonna keep teasing me about it, I'm gonna leave.

Shadow: NO! I need someone sane in here!

Kura: ...I'm not saying anything.

Silver: Please don't.

Sonic: So are we gonna do this thing or not?

Knuckles: I don't like the fact that I'm a Gyrados...

Brendon: That's hilarious, and he's a red Gyrados at that!

Cyrus: Hahaha!

Dawn: Wow, that fits him perfectly.

Evra: Who's the guy who's a Houndoom? (Scourge)

Julie-Su: Some guy named Shane. He left a little while ago.

Rouge: I wish a Persian exist...They're so beautiful!

Dawn: I wanted to be a dragon type...

Tails: What is with you and dragons?

Dawn: C'mon! They're so cool!

Sonic: Dragons exist on Mobius, Anti-Mobius AND Mobion, kiddo...

Dawn: But I haven't seen one yet!

Espio: I gotta go guys.

Brendon: Bye Espio.

Shadow: Dawn, I actually thought you would be either an Espeon or a Gardevior to tell the truth.

Dawn: I wanted to be a Latias...or a Dragonair. Garchomp's pretty cool too.

Shadow: What about a Salamence?

Dawn: I think that would be you actually. I prefer a Flygon.

Shadow: Hmmm...y'know, I COULD be a Dialga or Palkia.

Dawn: That's true...you can manupliate time and space with Chaos Control. So can I, a little bit. But I think EVERY hedgehog can learn Chaos Control...

Shadow: What if we were the lengendary trio? I would be Dialga and you would be Palkia.

Dawn: That would be so cool...but who's gonna be Giratina?

Shadow: ...Never thought about that one. Isn't he like, the creator of gravity?

Dawn: Something like that. I think he keeps the world in balance by regulating time and space, or something like that.

Shadow: Mmmm...Hey, I saw a Zorua and Zoroark. I really wanted to be a Zoroark, not an Absol.

Dawn: Those two are cool, but they're both a pain in the ass to get. You need certain events to get them, unless you hack the game or something. But why don't you want to be an Absol? They're cool!

Shadow: Dawn, Absol are signs of disaster. Don't you think that fits me TOO well...?

Dawn: Oh yeah...But why a Zoroark though?

Shadow: Don't you think that would be so...amazing, to have the ability to create illusions and bewitch people?

Dawn: Yeah.

Shadow: Also, both of them have a nice design and description. Zorua: the Evil Fox Pokemon and Zoroark: the Monster Fox Pokemon.

Dawn: I just noticed that both of them are almost exactly your colors, black and red. Wait a minute, shouldn't you be Giratina then?

Shadow: ...Now that I think about it...

Dawn: Hey Shadow, I fed some bunnies yesterday in my backyard.

Shadow: Don't. Evra's in here.

Dawn: Wha...?

Shadow: You didn't get the joke. Nevermind.

Dawn: Since when do you, of all people, tell jokes?

Shadow: Since now.

Dawn: But you have no sense of humor.

Shadow: Yes I do.

Dawn: No you don't.

Shadow: Yes I do.

Dawn: No you don't.

Shadow: YES I do!

Dawn: NO you don't!

Shadow: Yes I do!

Dawn: No you don't!

Shadow: YES I DO!

Dawn: NO YOU DON'T!

Shadow: YES!

Dawn: NO!

Shadow: YES!

Dawn: NO!

Shadow: YES!

Dawn: NO!

Kura: I'm just gonna type in some snarky comment about Dawn and Shadow liking each other because they won't even notice me posting this because they're too busy arguing like an old married couple.

Shadow: YE-I saw that Kura.

Dawn: Kura, that was SO not funny...

Sonic: NOW they stop arguing...

Julie-Su: I hear wedding bells...

Vector: You two took up most of the chat...

Brendon: Do you guys, like, want some private time or something?

Evra: Are they done? I went to go get something to drink.

Blaze: That's just sad...Even Evra left for a while because they were too busy having a chatroom date!

Dawn: We were just talking!

Tails: Yeah, and it seems you two have a lot in common.

Shadow: Because we were talking about Pokemon...?

Dawn: It was just a simple conversation! You guys could have came in at ANY time, but you all decided to sit back and watch us to deliberately make it seem like we have a lot in common, therefore making it seem like we like each other!

Shadow: Exactly!

Cyrus: Well, you guys seemed like you were having so much fun, so we let you have the chat for yourselves.

Knuckles: I don't see what's the problem here. If you guys like each other, then just say it already.

Shadow: OH MY FREAKIN' CHAOS! We're just friends for God's sake!

Kura: Wait, you like to have friends?

Silver: His only friend IS Dawn, but they're more than friends, it seems.

Sonic: Dawn, if you're embarrassed about it, then you can tell me.

Cyrus: Yeah, and I'm over the whole break-up anyway.

Rouge: Hon, we don't have a problem with it.

Candice: Hey Kura! We should totally set these two like Dawn set us up!

Kura: Yeah!

Evra: Oooh, I wanna help!

Dawn: I'M GONE!

Shadow: Me too...See you all in hell! Oh, Dawn, wanna go blow off some steam in the White Jungle again?

Dawn: If it gets me far away from these idiots then yes.

Candice: Oh nevermind. They're already going on a date.

Dawn: AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!

Shadow: You all BETTER be thankful this is over a chatroom!

Jeez...I had to stay logged onto the chat in order to get all of that down. My eyes were tearing up afterwards, and I can't really say that it will all be worth it when I look back in this thing when I'm an adult.

So now I'm sitting out in White Jungle again, watching Shadow destroy a lot of dummy G.U.N. robots to get rid of his frustration. This place is like a rain forest; it never seems to stop raining. So I'm perched up on this very thick branch in a very large tree to protect my journal from the rain. Usually the rain wouldn't have bothered me all that much, but now it's very annoying now that I gotta write in it. My shoes are off; if you want to fully experience White Jungle, walk around barefoot. No bugs or thorns or anything like that will attack your feet; the ground is moist and cool, and if you get to grassy parts, the blades from the grass will tickle your feet. It's hard to explain; maybe I feel so at home here because I'm an anthro now. I'm not very sure.

Oh. My. God. There is a jaguar in my tree. I'm gonna see if I can pet it.

* * *

Dear Jorunal,

I petted the jaguar! I think it likes me; it licked my hand when I petted it, and it was purring. It looks young though...

Crap, Shadow scared it away by blowing up another G.U.N. dummy. I yelled at him and he just gave me a look. I'm mad at him now.

* * *

Dear Journal,

The jaguar came back.

...And tried to give me a dead rabbit it just killed...

I forgot how cruel Mother Nature can be. But I didn't want to upset the jaguar, so I took it. But then it looked hungry so I gave it back and I had to wait it eat the dead bunny. Good thing Evra isn't here...OH! I just got Shadow's joke now!

Oh god, I'm covered with rabbit blood. I better go wash it off in that pond over there.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Ok, I was able to easily ash the blood off since it was still wet and because of the rain. The jaguar left a little while ago though, but left the remains of the rabbit where it was, so I had to move to a lower branch.

How long have we been out here? It feels like forever...

Okay, nevermind. Shadow offered to take me home. I'll be back in a minute.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Oh my God! I came home a few minutes ago, and I found Sonic in the living room playing my _"Bioshock"_ game! What's sad is that he's better than me and got further than I did. Also, I saw Sonic do something on the game I never expected him to do. A Little Sister carried ADAM; I'll explain what that is later. Anyway, in order to get the ADAM, you need to get to the Little Sister, but to get to her, you gotta kill a Big Daddy, which is a pain in the ass. So Sonic was somehow able to kill a Big Daddy with his pistol (he later told me he upgraded it) and harvested the Little Sister instead of Rescuing her. The difference between Harvesting and Rescuing a Little Sister is that when you Harvest her, the kid dies and you practically max out your ADAM. But if you Rescue her, you turn her back into a normal little girl, but you get less ADAM. However, an NPC in the game rewards you with some pretty good crap if you Rescue a Little Sister, and the rewards get better as you Rescue more of them.

So, you would think a guy like Sonic would rescue a Little Sister, right?

WRONG!

He Harvested nearly EVERY Little Sister he came in contact with! I asked him why didn't he rescue him and he said

"What's the point? They're gonna die in this hellhole regardless. Might as well put them out of their misery."

"Uh, dad? I know you saw those holes in the wall all throughout the game."

"Yeah, and?"

"That's where the Little Sisters go after they're rescued, so they don't die. Besides, when you rescue them, Tanebume (I honestly don't know how to spell that chick's name) rewards you with even more ADAM if you rescue them, as well as other good items."

"Oh, whoops. Well I haven't killed them all off so I can rescue the other half. Or if I'm in a bad mood I'll just kill 'em for the hell of it." He must've been in a bad mood, I swear.

I'm gonna keep watching him play the game. I'll write in this tomorrow or something.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: **I'm high on coffee and sugar. Run for your freakin' lives.

* * *

Dear Journal,

...I have nothing to write down...

...I really don't...

...Don't give me that look...

...I'm not keeping a super-duper secret or anything...

...OKAY FINE! YOU WIN! SHADOW KISSED ME YESTERDAY!

HAPPY NOW? ! LEAVE ME ALONE!

B-but, HE kissed me first! That doesn't mean I like him! He came to the castle, gave me some flowers, chocolate and a card, and we somehow kissed, ok? ! But I didn't kiss him back! Honestly!

...Okay, this is just sad. I'm having an argument with my journal...

...I'm, like, super paranoid right now. I better rip this out...

* * *

Dear Journal,

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHH! SONIC FOUND MY JOURNAL PAGE I RIPPED OUT AND POSTED IT ON FACEBOOK! EVERYONE KNOWS!

Now I'll have to murder my own dad and leave the country! I'm not even going to write down the comments everyone posted on my account; I'm gonna lock myself in my room for the rest of the day!


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: **I'm gonna try and cut back on the Facebook chats a bit. I don't want the next half of this to be mostly scripted text. Also, so sorry for the long wait before I updated!

* * *

Dear Journal,

I know I shouldn't be writing this down, but I had my first make-out session with Shadow yesterday. We were walking around the wooded area of Knothole when the bastard suddenly grabbed me, pushed me against the tree and forced me in a lip lock with him. I was scared at first; in fact, he did most of the work. I just stood there, frozen, not even moving while he kept kissing me. After a while, I eventually gained the courage and kissed him back, but it felt weird 'cause he tried to tongue me every 5 flippin' seconds, and that kinda ticked me off.

I've been avoiding Facebook for a while; I'm scared about what I'd find if I went on my page. I didn't even change my statues or anything in the last few weeks.

Ugh...I...man. okay, I'm glad I'm in a relationship with Shadow and all, but...Alright, think about it; this is Shadow...SHADOW The Freakin' Hedgehog. The same Shadow who was created to be the the Ultimate Lifeform. The same Shadow who fell from space and survived. The same Shadow who single-handily took down an entire demon alien race. The list goes on. Anyway, my point is that this guy, out of all people, chose me to be his girlfriend (when I was human, I personally thought he was better of with wither Maria or Rouge).

I'm a bit worried though. I wonder if Scourge found this out...I mean, I know too well that Scourge hates Shadow's guts (but loves mine...bleh...), and if he found out we were together...All hell will break loose, I know. I told Shadow this, and he said it would be best if we laid low for a bit. But, if luck isn't on our side, then Scourge probably already knows, and is probably plotting some sort of revenge scheme for us both.

Oh yeah, I got my revenge on Sonic for posting my diary page on Facebook. He was in the kitchen and he had just finished making a chilidog. I walked past him and "accidentally" bumped into him, making him drop his wiener. He actually fell to his knees and cried over the thing. I kinda fell sorry for him, but then I mocked him by pointing and laughing at him shortly after. But I fixed him another chilidog so he could get up from the floor. There was a point where I thought he was actually going to have a funeral for it...

Oh yeah, guess what I saw yesterday? Remember Dr. Finitevus? The creepy-looking albino echidna who think the world should be purged, recreated in his image and is a bit obsessed with my power? Yeah...I saw him go into Burger King. No joke! I actually had to do a double-take just to make sure I saw the right person. It was him, but he wore a suit today for whatever reason (and it was black). I even stood where I was just to see him come back out. He had a bag with him, but I didn't know what was in there (my guess would be a Whopper, fries and an apple pie...*snort*). I told my friends, Shadow and Sonic, and we all laughed.

These past few weeks haven't been that eventful besides those few details I wrote. School's still the same (Kura and Candice are still teasing me), and nothing's happened...It's practically boring. I remember I told Shadow to randomly Chaos Spear someone just to cause some commotion. He just laughed at me, but I was serious.

Well, this is getting boring...I'm gonna o find something to do.

* * *

Dear Journal,

I just found the jackpot! I was able to swipe Sonic and Shadow's journals! I'm gonna write down Shadow's first before Sonic's (he hardly write in the damn thing; there's hardly anything interesting in it). Don't ask how I acquired these. Anyways, here's Shadow's:

_November 17th_

_I have no plans for this Thanksgiving. However, I decided to be nice and gave the Commander a turkey so he would at least have something to eat this year *cough*the farmers gave it steroids*cough* I'm a little proud of myself. See Rouge? I am getting nicer each day (a little)._

_Also...I keep wondering whether or not I turned the heat off at my house or not...I remember the last time I left it on when I was gone. I came home and the house was so hot, I could fry an egg on the damn coffee table. I even had to walk around the house naked until the house cooled off (like that actually helped. I'm covered in fur...). I might buy Dawn something for Thanksgiving just to be respectful. I haven't gotten over that whole fiasco on Earth that day..._

_Okay...closing this up, I need to make my rounds._

_- Shadow_

_November 19th_

_Dawn texted me and told me Sonic burned the Thanksgiving turkey, so they had to order pizza as a substitute. She even sent me a picture of the bird. It was "extra crispy" if you catch my drift. And then she sent me another picture of Shad (a puppy I gave to her that she named after me) trying to eat the bird. I texted her back and told her to get the dog away from the bird before he got sick. She texted me 10 seconds later telling me it was too late and they had to take him to the vet. Poor puppy..._

_Speaking of Dawn, I don't think I've been keeping my promise. I secretly made a promise to both Sonic and myself stating that I would be Dawn's protector (her personal knight if you will. She's the princess after all) and tend to her needs. And no, that does not make me her slave or servant or whatever you want to call it. She's a sweet girl...and just like her father. Not saying that's a bad thing; I'm on good terms with Sonic now. We're practically friends now (key word: PRACTICALLY). And I can't help but to notice that I'm somehow drawn to the girl in some way...I can't put my finger on it. Maybe that's because I became her personal guardian._

_I can't help but to notice why she's white, yet Sonic is blue and Sally is brown...I don't think she's an albino; her eyes have color pigment in them, as far as I know. She might be an albino, but I doubt it. I think Sonic said she inherited genes from an ancestor or something. I honestly forgot what he said. _

_I have to take a shower. I'll update this tomorrow._

_- Shadow_

_December 24th_

_Sonic invited me over to a Christmas party. I didn't want to go, but I remembered my promise, so I forced myself to go. I also have to buy Dawn a gift, but I have no idea what to get the girl. I already gave her a puppy...and everyone at the party had gave her all a girl like her could want. I'm honestly don't know what I'm going to do...maybe if I buy her a card or something. I think it'll be better for to just go up to her and tell her that I didn't know what to get for her up front. Might as well go out with dignity. _

_Well, the party's soon. Better head on out._

_- Shadow_

_January 1st_

_I saw the funniest Facebook chat so far. Basically, we wrote down our New Year's Resolutions on our statuses, and Sonic wrote down that he'd have to buy Knuckles a new watch to replace the one he had lost before. Knuckles apparently wasn't happy because his dad gave him that watch, and he said he'd kick Sonic's ass for his New Year's Resolution. Dawn then wrote down that she was gonna point and laugh at Sonic while he's getting beaten to death, and I wrote I was gonna join Dawn in laughing at him. Then Amy wrote down she was gonna hit me with her hammer, and Mighty said he was gonna laugh at me for getting "owned" by a girl. It goes further, but I don't want to write down the entire chat for my own reasons._

_Well, besides that, my New Year has been pretty boring. Crap...I'm out of milk. Better go get some._

_- Shadow_

_April 5th_

_SOME ASSHOLE KIDNAPPED DAWN! HEADS WILL ROLL! IF IT'S SCOURGE, EXPECT ME TO BE ON THE NEWS FOR FIRST DEGREE MURDER! _

_- Shadow_

_April 7th_

_Okay, Dawn was found the same day. I apologize for the little freak-out. I'm just going to write down what happened over the last two days:_

_Dawn was apparently kidnapped by an echidna named Korie who is responsible for numerous kidnappings, rapes and murder. When Dawn was kidnapped, he used chloroform to knock her out before he took her to his hideout. Dawn was able to wake up (and not have anything done to her) to get the guy's identity. She also activated her tracking device in her tracker while he was tied up so we could find her quickly. Cyrus, the bat boy, was able to sneak into his hideout and rescued Dawn after winning a fight against Korie. After that, G.U.N, along with myself, rushed in, grabbed Korie and Cyrus took Dawn home. When there, they must've kissed and they started going out._

_That following day, Dawn and Sonic, along with some of the G.U.N. officers (including myself) appeared in court to testify against Korie. He was heavily fined since he threatened a member of the royal family, and he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Now, everything's back to normal._

_April 20th_

_People on the Internet are so immature...Remember when Cyrus and Dawn went out? Well, they broke up. Won't go into details about that because it's none of my business. Everyone flipped out when they saw that Dawn switched her status from "In a Relationship" to "Single" on Facebook. I honestly don't care what goes on in the girl's love-life. If they broke up, they broke up, big deal. So, how come everyone thinks that Dawn and I like each other because Dawn said she would date me if he had the chance after Knuckles posted some cutting remark in the comments? Now everyone thinks we like each other (and we DONT!)...Even Sonic agreed, and Espio had the gall to explain the theory scientifically! Even Cyrus, the boy who just broke up with her, ENCOURAGED her to admit that she liked me! Just because we defended each other doesn't mean anything!_

_Well, no sense of getting worked up over a chat that happened over the Internet. I'm sure it'll pass after a few days._

_I'm in the mood for some coffee...I'm going to Starbucks._

_- Shadow_

_April 27th_

_Apparently, I was wrong about what I said earlier..._

_- Shadow_

_May 2nd_

_OKAY YOU WIN! I like the girl, okay? ! And I proved it by kissing her yesterday!_

_I AM NOT ASHAMED! I THINK SHE'S...attractive. And yes, we agreed to go out with each other, but we won't make it public...just yet. Dawn's status on Facebook is still "Single." People already know anyway...especially after our last Facebook chat (won't go into that one. It was plain ridiculous if you ask me)._

_Hmmm...I wonder what kinds of movies she likes? I think I'll rent a few so she can come over for a movie night...I might order some right now in fact. Be back later._

_- Shadow_

What I find ironic about the last entry was that Shadow texted me asking if I wanted to see a movie that same day.

Well, it's close to midnight now and I have school tomorrow. I'll post up Sonic's tomorrow when I come back.


	16. Chapter 16

Dear Journal,

I think I may secretly be a pyromaniac. I didn't believe it until Sonic noticed that I was staring at the fire in the fireplace for a long time without blinking (no joke). He gave me some marshmallows just to see if I was gonna burn them. Turns out, I did, but then I ate it afterwards; I've never had roasted marshmallows before. And then Sonic and I decide to make smores and we spent that morning eating those treats. And then we went into the kitchen and Sonic taught me how to scramble eggs and how to make omelets. We made a little mess, but we got it cleaned up and enjoyed our protein enriched breakfast.

After we ate, I went up to my room to get changed into some regular clothes, but hen I saw a spider climbing up the wall near the bathroom. I really hated any kind of bug; I wasn't afraid of them, but I hated them and they were freaky to me. So, I went back into the kitchen and found an old jar in the recycling bin and took it back upstairs. Luckily, the spider hadn't moved much, so I used my finger to coax it into the jar.

I looked at it for a while until I got a very homicidal and cruel thought; what would happen if I set the spider on fire?

Now acting on an impulse, I went back downstairs and into the kitchen, and I had found some matches in a drawer. I didn't want Sonic so see me, nor did I want the fire alarm to go off due to the smoke, so I took my spider and the matches and went into the backyard. I sat on the grass and put the jar in front of me. The spider still didn't move a lot; I was surprised that it didn't attempt to crawl out of the jar since it didn't have a top on it.

So, I lit the match and dropped it into the jar. It fell right on the spider, and it spontaneously combusted into flames. There wasn't a lot of fire, but there were a few small flames covering the arachnid. The squirmed wildly and darted around the jar helplessly while it burned. I could have sworn I heard it squeal too at some point. Eventually, the spider fell on its back and curled into a ball while there were still flames on it, but it had died while still on fire. Wow, I am very, very cruel. But Sonic saw what I was doing since he was standing behind me while the spider burned...but I didn't know until he called my name.

"What are you doing?" he asked me. I didn't say anything right away. There was no way I was gonna say "Oh I'm just out here burning a spider alive"...But I didn't have to tell him anything since he saw the jar and a tiny flame still lit inside of it.

"Uh..."

"Please tell me you did not set that poor creature on fire..." He said that while facepalming the whole time.

"Well it didn't spontaneously combust just by sitting out in the sun," I said sheepishly.

"I think you're a pyromaniac," he murmured.

"Just because I set a spider on fire?" Sonic walked over and took the jar with the spider's charred remains and the matches away from me. But before he left, he knelt down until we were at eye level and rubbed my cheek.

"Sweetie, listen, I'm not trying to make it sound like you have a problem, but I think you shouldn't be around anything that has fire or creates a flame. If you are a pyromaniac, then I'm afraid of what you can do if I let this continue. It was just a spider this time, but think about what else you could do if you let your obsession grow. Understand?"

"Uh-huh..." He smiled before he nuzzled me and then stood up and took my toys away. He's probably going to hide every match and lighter he can find just to make sure I wouldn't do something like that. Sometimes I'm not sure if I should enjoy his protectiveness or be annoyed by it...or both.

I'm gonna bake a cake or something. I feel like cooking for some odd reason.

* * *

Dear Journal,

I am not well today...I'm bandaged up in a hispital right now, and I won't be leaving anytime soon. Shadow's asleep on my lap, covered in bandages too...We're here because of that bastard Scourge...Let me explain what happened:

I think this happened a day ago, but I went over to the G.U.N. headquarters to see what Shadow actually did in the place (and I don't want to admit it, but I missed him), but I didn't have to go in since he met me outside the place. After we met up, we went out for a walk in the woods, and we just talked for a bit. We talked some more (among other things, but I won't go into detail with that), and then when Shadow tells me the magic words, the prick decides to show up and ruin everything. He starts babbling about how I shouldn't be with Shadow and all of that, and then says something about "Soul Tone," which I have no idea what it is, and didn't really care at that point because I was so pissed off.

So, we get into a fight, Scourge is actually stronger then us, Shadow gets hurt, I try to defend him, he hits me, I'm suddenly in pain and bleeding from my stomach, and then everything turns black.

I'm not going to bother with going into detail with what had happened, because 1. I'm in a lot of pain and I can hardly remember what had happened around that time since I was unconscious for 24 hours and 2. a nurse came in just before I started writing in my journal and gave me some strong pain killers, so I'm kinda drowsy.

Anyway, Sonic came to the hospital earlier, and you can imagine that he was not happy about what had happened (especially since Scourge managed to damage the internal part of my stomach, and the fact I lost a lot of blood), but he was surprisingly calm when he came in, and he didn't go Dark Super Sonic on us. But Shadow went into his Dark Super mode and gave Scourge a beating to remember, so that's how we survived.

I gotta remember to ask Sonic about that Soul Tone thing since Scourge said it earlier, but I don't think I'll be able to right now...I hate these pills the doctors put me on. So what if I have more than 100 stitches on my stomach and needed surgery to repair the internal part but jeez! I feel high whenever I'm given those things! They make me numb to the pain, but I don't like that...I want to get put off of these pills as soon as possible; I don't want to become a drug addict and start to crave them once I gotta come off of them. On top of that, they make me really drowsy...I'm gonna see if they can lower the dose or something...Shadow is on them too, so that's why he's out cold on my lap.

Speaking of those pills, I'm getting really, really sleepy now...I can hardly write...I'm gonna take a little nap...

* * *

Dear Jorunal,

Sonic was able to lower my pill dose so I won't become drugged upon my request, so I'm feeling a little better. The pain is still there when I take them, but it's bearable. And I don't get as drowsy, so that's another good thing.

My friends came over and brought some "Get Well" gifts for me. Cyrus, Kura and even Brendon wanted to get revenge on Scourge after they saw the shape I was in, but Candice, Evra and I told them not to think about revenge, because it will only get them in trouble. They listened, but we still see them planning crap in the back of my room. I threw a book at them and told them to knock it off, and they stopped...this time.

Shadow's been down in the dumps too...He thinks the whole thing was his fault, and he's been beating himself up about it as of late. We've told him many times before that the whole thing wasn't his fault, but he won't listen. Sonic then had to give him a good talking to by saying that if he hadn't snapped like he did, I would probably be dead, and Sonic would have held that against him for the rest of his life. Shadow perked up after that, and he hasn't been moping since.

I'm supposed to get discharged in a few days; I can't wait to get out of this place...I've seen too many needles being poked into my skin and I've had enough of this hospital food...They gave me pureed chicken soup the other day...One word: Gross.

Besides all of that, it was just a regular hospital visit. I forgot to mention that the nurses are very nice, but my favorite, a calico Mobian cat named Roslin, she's awesome. She was a tomboy like I was when she was my age, and even said that she had to deal with a guy like Scourge when she was going to school. I'm gonna miss her when I leave, but she promised me that we could exchanged phone numbers and Facebook pages, and we could keep in touch. She even plans an girl's day out for Candice, Evra and I. Roslin is my new best friend.

Great...the doctor just came in the check on my stitches...Better put his down for a while.

* * *

**E/N:** Man, studying for exams suck so much...I'm very sorry if this took soooooo long to update! I might have the next one up by tonight or possibly tomorrow.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N:** I finally wanted to update this after like, what, a year?

Anyway, here ya go!

* * *

Dear Journal,

I'm finally out of the hospital and I'm going to finish my recovery at home. What sucks is that, since most of the damage Scourge caused is in my abdomen area, I'm stuck in the house for the next two or so weeks until I've completely healed. And I can't walk properly either because of it; I would be bedridden if Dr. Quack hadn't allowed me to use crutches to help me move around. And I still gotta take those pain killers, which sucks more. But since the dose has been lowered, I won't get drowsy from them. The pain isn't as bad as it was before, but it still hurts.

Shadow is still beating himself over the whole thing even after we got him out of his mood in the hospital. He's been coming over a lot now that I'm at home, and he won't stop apologizing to me. I told him that if he didn't stop, I would break up with him. He hasn't opened his mouth yet.

My friends are coming over on a regular basis too. We've been hanging out in the living room a lot, playing games and talking. Shadow's joined the group too, and it looks like he's enjoying himself, being able to socialize with people like my friends and being able to relax around them. Brendon, Cyrus, Evra and I even told them stories about the things we did when we were still humans on Earth, and they found it entertaining. Speaking of that, I wonder what happened to my surrogate parents...Ever since Finitevus turned Earth into Mobion, I haven't heard anything about them...I wonder if they're alright...

Oh yeah! Knuckles came by earlier today and brought me a Chao egg. Chaos are these cute blue and yellow things that seem to have some type of connection with Chaos energy (from what I've heard). They're really friendly and are only found in these secret gardens that aren't easy to find by a regular person. They're born in eggs, and if a Chao spends time with a person long enough, it'll evolve into several different types of Chao. Normal Chao can evolve into either a speed type, a power type, a flight type, or a neutral type. But here's what's really cool; if a person with a heroic or good heart raise a Chao, it'll turn into a Hero Chao. It's basically a Chao that takes on the image of an angel, and even the little ball on its head turns into a halo. they can still turn into different types like if they were normal, but now they would be classified as a "Hero Power" Chao and so on. And, if a person with an evil or bad heart raise the Chao, it'll turn into a Dark Chao, which is a Chao that's a blackish color with a devil tail and a spiky ball on its head. But, like i said before, it can still have a type to it. What's even cooler about Chao is that if you raise it well, it'll die, but it'll be reborn as an egg. But if you mistreat it throughout its life, it'll simply die.

Knuckles told me that he found the egg in an abandoned Chao Garden on Angel Island. He saw two eggs, but he decided to take this one and give it to me as a get well gift. He even told me that he would give Scourge a black eye and a few broken bones and a bonus, but I told him it wasn't worth it. I thanked him for the egg though; I even gave him a hug. I see Knuckles as one of my distant uncles; he doesn't come around much after his dad died since he has to guard the Master Emerald, but he comes around sometimes and pays us a visit. He's my personal combat coach - along with his girlfriend Julie-Su - whenever it was time for me to train. It's weird...I don't see Knuckles a lot nowadays. I gotta go visit him on Angel Island one day.

So yeah, I have an egg to look after. I showed Sonic the egg and he said that it was cool that Knux gave it to me. I showed my friends too, and Evra told me she was a little jealous that I got it because she's been wanting a Chao ever since she saw Cream's Chaos friend Cheese. I told her I'll let her play with it when it hatched, and she seemed happy.

Anyway, we played some video games today to pass time. We started out with Mario Party 2 with Brendon, Cyrus, Kura and I playing first. I was Peach, Brendon was Luigi, Cyrus was Mario, and Kura was Wario. We had finished playing one of the boards (with Cyrus being the winner) before Sonic came in and decided to watch. We played another board before we called it quits and decided to play Mario Kart Double Dash. Shadow had came in by then, and he watched us play a little too. And then Knuckles came by to check on the progress of the egg, only to see Sonic and Shadow watching a bunch of teenagers kill each other in a cart racing came. We were just messing around in Battle Mode though, not actually racing. When we did get ready to actually have a race, something weird happened.

"Can I play?" Sonic suddenly asked.

"Yeah, I wanna try too," Shadow added.

"Kinda looks like fun," came form Knuckles. I stared at my dad, boyfriend and uncle while my friends exchanged glances. After a few seconds, we came to an agreement. Brendon, Cyrus and Kura were going to let them play while I kept my spot in the game. Brendon gave Sonic his controller, Cyrus gave his to Knuckles, and Kura gave his to Shadow. They re-chose their characters after that; Sonic chose Mario and Luigi, Shadow took Bowser and Bowser Jr., and Knuckles chose Wario and Waluigi while I kept Yoshi and Birdo. Since they were still new to the game, I chose the easiest Cup - the Mushroom Cup so they could get a feel of the controls and the courses. I have to admit, it was weird playing a video game with the guys; in fact, I thought it was cool. That is, until they got the hang of it.

You know when you play any type of racing game with computer players, and they have that "rubberband AI" where, when you're in first place, one of the computer players just suddenly come up from behind you and steal your spot in first at the last minute? Well, these guys were worse.

In fact, they were ruthless.

After the first track, they started to become the biggest jerks in Mario Kart history. They waited until I was in first or at least second before they started attacking me. Sonic always got the speed boost at the start of the race and used his Mushrooms and the Mario Bros. fireballs to slow me down, while Shadow - being more strategic - waited until Sonic got rid of me to steal his spot, but also send me back several places. And then Knuckles added to the pain by throwing Koopa Shells and the Wario Bros.' Bob-Ombs at all three of us while we were fighting for first place, and he would take the lead on all of us. Knuckles was actually the biggest threat in the game since he used our greed to get to first against us. And then he gets so lucky because he would get the Bob-Omb almost every time he got one of the Mystery Boxes. By the time we finished the Cup, Knuckles was the overall winner, Sonic and Shadow took second, and I was close to last.

"You guys are freakin' ruthless," I pouted while Sonic chose the next Cup.

"There's no love in competitive racing, Kiddo," Sonic said.

"I can't believe we lost to Knuckles, of all people," Shadow muttered under his breath.

"Heard that," Knuckles said, before he added "Besides, don't get mad at me because you suck at racing."

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that!"

"Well I'm done," I said as I sat my controller down "Someone else can play." Kura decided to take the adults on while I wanted to watch over my egg. I felt the Chao inside tap against the egg shell while I watch Kura doing better than me against the adults. They continued to play, each of the guys taking turns until Knuckles had to get back to Angel Island. Sonic lost interest too and went to go do something else, but Shadow stayed a little longer be he left too. My friends stayed and we hung out some more before they had to go home, so now I was left alone with my egg.

Sonic came into my room a little while ago and helped me make up some names for the Chao when it hatches. We didn't really think of anything good, but the names we kept were Coffee and Shamrock. When he left, I decided to take one of my books and read it to the egg before I turned in. I figured that if the Chao could hear me form within the egg, it might learn to talk when it hatched. It was silly, but it didn't hurt to try.

Well, I finished the book, and I gotta take my pills. I'm gonna go to bed.

* * *

Dear Journal,

My egg hatched today! I woke up this morning and heard the egg cracking, when I did, I got my dad and we watched the egg hatch together. The Chao turned out to be a boy, but he was healthy. Sonic really wanted to call him Shamrock for whatever reason, but I told him I had a better name for it.

"I wanna name him Icarus," I told him at breakfast. Sonic and I was eating some scrambled eggs and toast, while I fed my new Chao some dry Kix cereal.

"Why Icarus?" he asked.

"I dunno," I shrugged, feeding a few more pieces to Icarus. "Coffee wouldn't fit him since he's a boy, and I don't think Shamrock would fit him either. Right Icarus?" Said Chao looked up and just stared at me for a few seconds before he went "kee-pa."

Sonic smiled. "Well, it's your Chao, so you name him whatever you want to." Sonic took a sip of a glass of milk he had, and Icarus fluttered over to him and peered into the glass. He picked it up and tried drinking it, only to spit the milk out and begin coughing and sneezing. Sonic took the glass away from Icarus while I cradled my newborn Chao, but then I saw that his face was turning red. When i told Sonic, he took Icarus to a doctor that specializes in Chao, and he called me to let me know that Icarus was born lactose intolerant. He can't consume pure or raw milk, but he can consume products that are made from milk like cheese and ice cream. I found that odd...

Nonetheless, the doctor healed Icarus and gave Sonic some medication for him to take if he has another allergic reaction. Icarus was fine when they came home, but Sonic and I made sure to keep milk away from him.

After that little incident, I called my friends over to see my new Chao, and Icarus was just as eager to meet them as they were to meet him. Sonic decided to celebrate the occasion by making us some nachos for lunch. Best. Lunch. Ever.

We talked about a lot of stuff while we ate, but Icarus was pestering me about the nachos, so I gave him one of the tortilla chips covered in cheese. He started doing this little happy dance after he ate it, and tried to grab another chip from my bowl.

"Something tells me he really like nachos," I murmured while trying to keep Icarus from eating the rest of my chips.

"That or he really likes cheese," Cyrus laughed.

Icarus managed to snag one of my cheese-covered chips and went into song and dance. "Chiiiiii!"

"Yup, it's the cheese," Sonic laughed. I eventually had to make Icarus a small plate of the nachos for Icarus so he could stop stealing form my bowl. He was really happy and almost wolfed them down if I hadn't scold him. We kept eating and talking before the phone rang again. I answered it this time, and it was Dr. Quack calling telling me to let Sonic bring me into the clinic so that he could take my stitches out and bandage my wound for the rest of my recovery. I cringed, but told him I'd let Sonic know.

So, as you might've guessed, the moment I told Sonic, he said we were going to the clinic as soon as we were done eating, but my friends could come too, along with Icarus. Now everyone's getting ready to go to the clinic. I know I'm going to be experiencing more pain, so I'm gonna put this down for right now and wait until the dirty deed is done. I'll be back later.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Getting your stitches removed SUCKS. I'm actually in a fetal position groaning softly while writing this entry.

AUGH! CRAMP!

* * *

**E/N:** I have exams next week (ironic when the last chapter had me complain about studying for the other exams...).

Sorry about the erupt ending, though.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N:** I know I should be studying for my exams tomorrow, but I REALLY wanted to write this chapter...

So, here ya go!

* * *

Dear Journal,

After a week of enduring intense pain, I've finally recovered fully from Scourge's attack. But it sucks because that means that I gotta go back to school...Well, I couldn't avoid it forever.

Anyway, I went to school the following day and hung out with Candice and Kura through most of my classes. I can't help but to notice how much Kura's changed since I met him a year or so back. He's gone from this shy, timid guy to a strong, confident wolf with a girlfriend and friends. He's been taking kick-boxing classes too, and I heard he laid a beating on Blaine - the guy who kept picking on him - because he was trying to pull a move on Candice. Speaking of that, he's been getting beefy. Like, ever since he's been taking those classes, he gained some muscles in his arms and legs. He doesn't look as scrawny like he used to. In fact, he's kinda hot now.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we got this new guy at school. He's an echidna from Albion (a place Dr. Finitevus utterly destroyed and wiped out most of the echidna population). I remember when I was still a human on Earth, I went to the Archie Sonic wiki that said that after the Xorda used that Gene Bomb here and de-evolutionized humans to Mobians, the echidnas were the first to develop, making them the brightest species on Mobius. And the wiki wasn't lying either...this guy has a freakin' 4.9 grade point average!

Like I said before, he's an echidna. Around the age of seventeen; around Kura's height, kinda bulky like most echidnas, and hot (hey, he was). His dreads had black tribal markings on them, and he wore this bronze and gold band around his arm. He has most of his dreads in a loose ponytail while two small ones remained in front. Wore jeans, boots and a jacket most of the time, and his crest was kinda jagged. He had hair too; there was a few strands handing over his forehead.

But what kinda sucks is that he's the new popular guy in school. Seriously, most of the girls are going gaga over him, and it wouldn't suprise me if they worshipped the ground he walked on. Then again, he has this...aura to him that you can just tell that he's a popular guy amongst the ladies.

Thing is, this guy has every class with me, which sucks. What sucks even more is that he's going to be my new lab partner for the next week or so for a Science project we gotta do...joy. Kura has the science class with me, and we're usually partners, but our teacher wanted the new boy to get acquainted with the Kingdom's jewel, so I was assigned to him. I hate my status in the Royal Family sometimes...

So there we were, sitting at a lab table, listening to the instructions. I felt really awkward around the guy; not only was he hot, but now I got the feeling that the other girls wanted my head on a silver platter because I was his partner. And I REALLY hope there isn't an echidna girl in here that has Soul Touch (Soul Touch is like Soul Tone, but for echidnas. It's basically this...feeling you get when you find your soul mate) and believes that I wanna steal him or something.

So, after our teacher's long explanation was done, we finally got a chance to do our project. All we gotta do is choose a factor of life like how fast sound travels or gravity and turn it into a presentation to show off what we've learned. And since I was with an echidna with a 4.9 grade point average, this project should be a piece of cake.

But first, we had to introduce ourselves.

He said to me "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Your Highness." My God, his voice was so smooth...

I got a little nervous, but I shrugged it off. "Eh, I don't like to be called by that title. Just call me Dawn."

"Charmed." He suddenly reached over, took my hand and kissed it before he smiled at me. I felt my face get warm...was I blushing? "I am called Altair. I am sometimes called Scorch, but you may call me whatever you want, and I will be sure to respond every time."

"O...kay." I didn't know how to react to the guy; he was...weird, in this charming kind of way. In fact, he reminded of someone, but I don't know who...And why would he be called "Scorch?"

"Anyway," I said "we gotta project to do. I've been thinking of what we could do, and I thought that we could do a study of plant absorbtion. See, I've always wonder if a flower could absorb the colors from water and change the color of its petals if there was, like, food coloring present in the water."

Altair nodded. "Sounds like a good project to start out with..." Then he grinned. "But that's only for something during the first semester. We're down to our last, so why not go out with a bang?" I gave him a look, since I didn't know what he was talking about, but then he leaned over and whispered into my ear. "Let's think outside the box and do a project about Chaos Energy." His lips were brushing against my ear, and it was hard not to flinch because it tickled. But I was shocked at what he wanted to do a presentation about.

"Will they allow us to present that?" I wondered. "I mean, Chaos Energy is a very touchy subject around here..."

"That's the point," he grinned again "See, I happen to be related to one of the many top scientists of Albion, so I am quite knowledgable about Chaos Energy. However, I have heard that you also have the ability to control it as well, so this will be a walk in the park for both of us." He leaned in again and smirked, making me get a little uneasy. "Once we do this project, we'll get an easy A and a guarunteed pass of this class, but we're going to have to work together on this. That means that, with my expertise and your powers, we'll be unstoppable!"

Because of that quote, he now reminds me of an evil genius or something...

Regardless, I had to pass this class since I wanted to graduate to a senior next year, and since I could ask my family and friends about Chaos Energy since they knew more about it, this shouldn't be too hard. During the class, I started jotting down notes based on what Altair already knew, and then I added my own little facts about it. That's what we did for the remainder of the class, and by the time we were almost finished, class was over.

"Care to join me in the library during lunch hour?" he asked me on the way out "Surely we can get more done once we get everything down."

"We have ten days to do this project, Altair," I reminded him "Besides, I get get more information from my dad and his friends at home, so I'll have more than enough notes by tomorrow to use at our disposal."

"Ah, truly?" he said "Then we'll exchange information tomorrow." He left me after that, probably to go find some girl to kiss his boots or something. Regardless, I was glad he left. He was kinda freaking me out a little...

Anyway, I met up with Candice and Kura at lunch, and I told them about the new guy. They said they met him, but there was alos something off about him that they noticed. Of course, we just brushed it off since he was the new guy and we were probably getting the wrong impression, and went on to talk about what normal teens talked about. I couldn't avoid altair for the rest of the day since he had all of my classes, but suprisingly, he didn't bother me that much in my other classes. We made small talk, but that was it.

Well, school's over with now. Gonna head home and ask Sonic and possibly Shadow and Knuckles about Chaos Energy for my project.

* * *

Dear Journal,

My dad is freakin' awesome! I hadn't noticed that my birthday was coming up, but he did, and when I got home today, he told me that he was planning a two week long vacation at this luxury hotel at Seaside Hill for my birthday! He even said that I could invite all of my friends to go with! Oh my God, I am _so_ excited!

Oh yeah, I told Sonic about my project and he told me that I could probably go to Knuckles and ask him about it since he's been exposed to a lot of Chaos Energy as a kid, so he, of all people, should know a lot about it. I decided to go, and I took Icarus with me so I could show Knuckles that he hatched from his egg. I had to tell my friends that we probably wouldn't be able to hang out because of my project before I Chaos Controlled to Angel Island.

I have never been on Angel Island before now; sure I knew a lot about it, but I never actually set foot on it. It looked like what you might've expected; mostly a jungle with a shrine, from what I saw.

Anyway, Icarus clung to my shoulder while I went over to the Master Emerald Shrine with my bag. I saw Knuckles sitting on the stone stairs, looking awfully bored. I wodnered where Julie-Su and the rest of the Chaotix were, but then I figured that they had their own business to attend to at the moment. I didn't mind either way; at least I could hang out with my favorite uncle!

"Hey! Uncle Knuckles!" Knuckles looked up to see me waving at him, and he smiled before he gestured at me to come over.

"Hey Kid," he said when I sat on the stairs with him. "What'cha doin' here? Oh, I see the egg I gave ya hatched."

"Yup! I named him Icarus." Icarus fluttered around Knuckles before he settled down on his shoulder and started messing with one of his dreads. "Hey, be nice."

"Puu-pa!"

"Ah, I don't mind," Knuckles said as he petted the Chao. "Anyway, what are you here for?"

I took out my notebook from my bag and hummed a little. "Well, I came here for two things. The first reason is that I need help with a science project, and the second thing is that I wanna hang out with ya since we never get the chance."

"Well, I don't mind being with my favorite niece for a few hours," he laughed "So, what's this science project about? Your studying echidnas or something?"

"No," I said before stroking my quills a little bit "Actually, the project is about Chaos Energy, and right now I'm collecting notes about it so my lab partner and I can make a presentation about it." I decided not to tell him about Altair since it seemed irrelevent, but I was suprised when Knuckles seemed cool about it. I figured that he would've flipped out, but he proved me wrong.

"Well, you've came to the right place!" he said before he stood up with Icarus still on his shoulder. "But let's not talk about it here. Follow me into the Master Emerald's chamber and we'll talk there." Son I followed my echidna uncle into the chamber where he gave me basic information about Chaos Energy. I wrote down as much as I could, making sure to catch key things like the Chaos Emeralds and how the energy can be used for numerous of things. By the time we finished, I had almost half of my notebook filled with notes regarding Chaos Energy. Julie-Su came back by the time we were finished, but it was dark out. Knuckles didn't want me to come home late, so he contacted Sonic to see if it was okay if I spent the night on Angel Island. He said it was fine, as long as I made it to school on time tomorrow. So now I was having a sleep over with my aunt and uncle. Sweet.

I was psyched about being with Knuckles overnight, and I showed it by rough-housing with him a bit before I went to bed. I wanted revenge for what he did to me in Mario Kart, but I couldn't get it since he would always find a way to pin me down. Damn him for being strong...

Anyway, I'm staying in this little room near the chamber until tomorrow. Icarus is asleep on my lap, and it almost eleven o' clock at night. I better get to bed before Knuckles decides to check in and scold me.

* * *

Dear Journal,

I found out that our science project is actually our final exam before summer vacation. So I had to pass all of my classes if I wanted to be a senior next year. It wasn't too much of a big deal; I've passed the rest of my classes, but it's Science that gives me the most trouble. Hopefully Altair will be able to help me pass with this project.

Speaking of Altair, I ran into him on my way to my first class. I was at my locker with Candice, getting what I needed for my classes when he decided to come over. He was as smooth and hot as he always is (even though I just met him yesterday).

He said "Bonum mane, Aurora. Quaeso satis compertum colligetis heri?" Candice and I stared at him while he chuckled.

"That was Latin, my dears," he said "I happen to know many languages, but I mostly excell in Latin and French. We have the same classes together, Aurora, so I know you have French with me. And it makes me wonder if you actually pay attention..."

"That's nice," I said "but what exactly did you say to me? And why are you suddenly calling me 'Aurora'?"

"That's what your name would be in Latin," Altair explained "and I was saying good morning to you and asked if you had gathered any more notes on our project."

"Oh, yeah..." I took out my notebook for science and showed him my notes I got from Knuckles. "I managed to get a lot last night. Will this be enough?"

"Ah! This is more than what we actually need. We will pass the class flawlessly now. But, this sin't the time to talk. I'll see you first hour, Aurora." Altair winked at me before he walked off, leaving Candice and I to just gape at him.

"...What was that all about?" she asked.

"I dunno," I replied as I closed my locker "but I can't worry about him too much. Listen, I'll talk to you later at lunch, 'kay? I got something to tell you then."

"'Kay. See ya Dawn!" Candice picked up her bag from the floor before she went to her next class. The bell rung by the time I got to mine, but everyone else got there before I did. and what sucks more is that I'm stuck sitting next to Altair for the whole hour...

Aaaand he's trying to peer into my journal. Better close it for right now.

* * *

**E/N:** Hey! I updated sooner than I thought I would!

I've been wanting to write this down for a while, so I couldn't resist.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N:** I'm glad my friend still likes this story, even though I haven't been updating it lately..

* * *

Dear Journal,

So, my birthday's coming up in a few more weeks. I told my friends about the trip to Seaside Hill and they're just as psyched as I am about going. We've never been to Seaside Hill before, but we keep hearing it's a great vacationing spot this time of year. What even better is that we're going the day after we get out of school for Summer Vacation, so that'll be the best way to kick it off!

Anyway, the Science project I'm doing with Altair is coming along well. We were able to get enough information to start our presentation. Altair wants to go all out though; he showed me this little lab thingy he's making. It's basically this clear fiberglass box with a fake Chaos emerald in it that he made. We're supposed to expose some artificial Chaos Energy we made to the emerald and see what kind of reaction we get. We're also going to demonstrate how Chaos Energy reacts to someone's heart, whether it be a good or bad one. Most of its done, we just gotta put together the box, as well as finish making the energy.

Speaking of Altair, he's been helping me with my French class. Since I suck at foreign languages, I was gonna need him if I wanted to pass my final exam, as much as I didn't want to rely on him. I had to skip lunch today just to meet him in the library so he could tutor me. And he's really irritating me now because he's calling me Aurora now, and that's not my freakin' name...

So there I was, stuck with the smart pretty boy in the library with a French book.

"Alright, let's try something simple," Altair said before closing the book. "This should be easy; it's how the introduce yourself. Now, repeat after me: Bonjour, je m'appelle Altair."

I made a face. "What does that mean again?"

"Hello, my name is..."

"Oh..." I felt so dumb.

"So, are you going to try it?"

"Eh...B-bonjour, jee mappel -"

"Stop," Altair shook his head. "You had it, but you botched it towards the end."

"Alright, alright! Lemme try again...'Bonjour, jee m'appe -"

"It's _je _m'appelle Aurora, 'je', not 'jee'."

I sighed. This was going to be a long lunch hour...But by the time lunch ended, I had learned how to say several phrases in French, so I got _some_thing done in there. altair and I left out of the library, and we could've went to class together since we have the same classes, but Altair had to switch his books, so he headed towards his locker. I was glad to be away from him for a little bit, so I started to head towards my next class. Unfortunately, I ran into the school sluts on the way.

So, everyone's had that group of girls who think they're all that. Usually they consist of the cheerleading team, or the prettiest girls in the entire school, or known to be the sluts of the school who wants every hot guy that goes there. In this case, these gals are all of the above. There's only four of them: the leader is this red-head mongoose named Ruby. Her partner in crime is an orange hedgehog with long hair named Citrus. The semi-quiet one who agrees with everything the leader says or does is a black cat with silvery wavy hair named Coal. And finally, we have the quiet one who is just along for the ride because she wants to be with the popular girls. She's a brown wolf with blonde hair named Toffee.

I personally don't have anything against Coal or Toffee, but it's Ruby and Citrus who I can't stand. Thing is, I didn't do anything to them at all; it all started after I started hanging out with with Kura and Candice, and every time I walk past them, the two of them glare at me for whatever reason. Maybe they were doing this ever since I got here and didn't notice it until now, but it really didn't matter either way. They can't stand me, so I can't stand them.

So there I was, being blocked from my next class because they wanted to mess with me. This wasn't going to end well...for them, anyway.

"Well, well, well, look who it is," Ruby sneered at me "You got some explaining to do, Dawn..."

"Explain what? Why you're name is the first name of the list of the top sluts in the school in the bathroom stalls?" I jeered back. "If so, then I can think of ten reasons why." Ruby's flared up with anger, and I got a sick satisfaction of pissing her off like that. Still, I kept my smirk to myself.

"That's not what I was here for," she said through her gritted teeth "I'm here to confirm something."

"What?"

"Is it true that your Dad is taking you to Seaside Hill the day after school let's out for Summer Vacation?"

I frowned. "Where did you hear that from?"

"Her mom works at one of the top Travel Agencies on the continent," Citrus answered before Ruby could open her mouth. "Her mom told her that she saw Sonic the Hedgehog buying a lot of tickets to Seaside Hill for two weeks."

"AND you're staying at the luxury hotel!" Ruby finished, though she said it rudely.

I shrugged at them both. "Yeah, it's true," I replied casually, making all of their eyes widen "My birthday's a few days after, so Sonic thought it would be a good way to start off my Summer Vacation and start off my birthday. I can bring some of my friends too, so I'm not going alone either."

"Not fair!" Ruby stomped her foot like a toddler "How come you get to go somewhere that luxurious? Just because you're the princess doesn't mean you deserve anything!"

Ok, by that point, she pushed me too far. Does she know what I've been through ever since I learned who I really was? Especially after what happened to me when Scourge attacked? I wasn't going to take this one lying down. Next thing I knew, I'm grabbing the collar to her shirt and pushed her up against the locker.

"Look here, Bitch," I growled "You have NO idea what I've been through ever since I've been here on Mobius! My mom's dead, there are several psychos after me, I have to rule a freakin' planet and I JUST got out of the hospital after having my stomach sliced open! So you have NO tight to tell me what I do and don't deserve! On top of that, I had to witness my old home planet get turned inside out, and I could do anything about it! And what have you done, hm? Besides sit on your ass and complain about what you don't have? You've done nothing! You hear me? NOTHING!" I pushed her against the locker one more time, making her yelp before I pushed her into Citrus, making them fall. Coal and Toffee stepped away as I stood over them and glared at them both.

"You have one more time to say anything like that to me, and I swear I'll have both of your heads on a silver platter." With that warning, I stormed to my next class. A crowd had gathered in the hallway while I had Ruby against the locker, and they made sure to get out of my way once I started walking. Hell, even Altair kept his distance. I must've looked reeeeeally pissed.

I wasn't in a good mood for the rest of the day after that. I was expecting to be called to the principle's office, but I wasn't. In fact, none of the teacher's seemed aware about what happened. If they did, they either ignored it or decided not to bring it up. I guessed they figured that Ruby had to provoke me into doing that; they knew what I've been through.

I was so glad when school finally let out; I needed to blow off some steam somehow, and I didn't want to take it out on my friends. Maybe Shadow or Knuckles could spar with me when I got home...But Candice and Kura saw what happened, and they asked me if I was ok once we were out of the school building.

"Yeah, I'm ok," I told them, waving it off.

"She had a lot of nerve, saying that," Candice huffed while we walked home "No wonder she's the school slut!"

"You should've socked her dead in her face, Dawn," Kura added "You know, like how you did Blaine that day?"

"I wanted to, trust me. But I could've got in trouble just by threatening her. I didn't want to put myself in even more hot water..."

"Still," Candice hummed "I hope you know that even after that death threat, she's not gonna leave you alone..." I groaned.

"Joy..." Candice and Kura decided to leave the matter alone for the rest of the trip home, and we went our separate ways once we reached the crossroads. The project Altair and I was due Thursday, so today was my last day to finish my half of the project. I needed something to take my mind off what happened with Ruby, so I can safely say that this is the first time I've ever been eager to do homework.

Well, there's no sense in procrastinating here in my journal...Might as well get started.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Wow, I must've been in a really bad mood yesterday since I didn't write anything else that whole day.

Anyway, forgetting that little incident, I finished my half of the project for today. With my papers in my bag, I went to school with Candice and Kura, as usual. Everything was fine for the first half of the day, then it was finally time to present in Science Class. I had to sit next to Altair at our lab table while everyone else presented their projects. One pair did an active volcano, another pair showed up hoe tsunamis are made, and Kura's group showed us the effects of gravity.

Finally, it was our turn. Altair started putting together the box while I put the fake emerald in place and got the papers together.

"Ahem...For our project, Dawn and I decided to research about Chaos energy," Altair said, earning a few murmurs from the rest of the class. "As we all know, Chaos energy and Chaos force seems to be the very thing that controls our world. We rely on it for just about everything; good fortune, protection, power...However, there are still a lot of things we don't know about it. Where did this mythical energy come from? Who made it? How can we gain complete control over it? We set out to find those answers..."

I attached the siphon to the hole on the box, then turned on this machine Altair made that releases artificial Chaos energy. The generic green power went through the siphon and into the box, only for it to be absorbed into the emerald instantly.

"As you know," Altair went on "the very thing that holds this kind of power are the Chaos Emeralds. There are only seven in existence, then there's their controller, the Master Emerald. One of the mysteries we wanted to figure out is why there are only seven emeralds if the power of the Chaos energy is almost unlimited? Also, why is the Master Emerald the controller? Well, this dates back to when Mobius first formed..." I droned out everything else Altair was saying since he was going on about a history lesson, explaining how we were able to get the Chaos Emeralds, what they were used for, how the Master emerald came to be, yadda, yadda, yadda. I already knew about that, so there was no need for me to listen to it.

While he was going on about that, I started to think about why his nickname was Scorch. I never found out, nor did I ask him. Maybe I should ask him after class is over...

"...And THAT is how the seven Chaos Emeralds came to be." Altair said, finishing up his speech. "Now, here's the real kicker; who can use a Chaos energy? Or a Chaos Emerald, for that matter? And the answer to that, is anyone." More murmurs and mumbling came from the class, but Altair waved his hand to make them be quiet. "I would explain why that is so, but I believe my lovely lab partner can do that for me..." Altair winked at me while I rolled my eyes. I stood up and took Altair's place in front of the class so I could begin.

"To further explain what Altair meant," I said "Anyone can use a Chaos emerald if they channel their hearts into it. However, not just anyone can use pure Chaos energy or force. You'll have to be exposed to it for a long time, starting at a young age. I can use pure Chaos energy, but the only reason I can is because my Dad has been exposed to it all of his life, and those genes passed on to me when I was born, reason being why I can use a Chaos Emerald. However..." I went over the the box and took the fake emerald out, then went back to the front of the class. "A Chaos Emerald is sensitive. It can tap into anyone's thoughts, as long as they're strong enough." I made an example by thinking about something good, like bringing world peace and making everyone happy. The emerald began to glow, making the class gasp.

"It is said that once all of the seven Chaos Emeralds are brought together, they can make a miracle," Altair said "However, we believe that the 'miracle' is based on who brings them together. If the person has a good heart - like Dawn - then the miracle can be from saving a life or the planet. However..." I changed my thoughts into something evil; I imagined myself tossing Ruby into the nearest volcano and cackling madly while lightning struck in the sky. The emerald stopped glowing and the energy inside began to spike madly. "If a person with a bad heart brings them together, the 'miracle' can turn into a disaster."

I stopped that little daydream and put the emerald back into the box; we were just about done with our presentation.

"Still," I said "even with all the information we created, there is still a lot we need to learn. Chaos energy is a force to be reckoned with. If the wrong person takes control, the results can end in anything from altered timelines or the disruptions of time and space. So, you can do just about anything with it, but you must be careful with who wields it." We concluded our presentation, and we got a small applause like everyone else. We weren't the last pair to present our project, so we had to wait for everyone else until class was over. By the time everyone was finished, the bell had rang and class was over. Altair and I turned in our papers before we walked, eagerly waiting for our grade.

"I'm glad that's over with," I sighed "I hate speaking in front of a crowd..."

"Then I don't know how you'll be able to rule a continent, let alone a planet," he chuckled as we walked into the cafeteria. I went over to the table Candice, Kura and I usually sat at, and I found them sitting there with their trays, as always. Altair decided to follow since he never got a chance to meet my friends, even though he sees me with them all the time. They introduced themselves when we got there, and we got our trays before we sat down and started talking.

"I still can't believe your dad is letting us come with you when you go to Seaside Hill," Candice said once we were seated "I've heard that it's so beautiful this time of year."

"I know," I replied "I didn't think he would even do that, especially since we're going the day after school lets out."

"Pardon me," Altair asked "you're going to Seaside Hill?"

"Yeah," Kura replied "for Dawn's birthday. We're staying at the hotel there for two weeks."

"The hotel wouldn't be called the 'Seaside Palace,' would it?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, well! I'm going there for my summer job. I'm working there for a month to earn money for school." Joy! Now I gotta see the guy on my birthday! "But you never told me your birthday is coming up, Aurora. Now I need to find you a gift."

"Oh, right, Dawn, I forgot to ask," Candice asked me "are you going to prom next week?"

Wait...wasn't I supposed to do something...?

CRAP! I told Sonic about it and he wants me to get a dress! Goddammit!

* * *

**E/N:** The erupt ending is because Dawn didn't want to go but Sonic made her go because...it's going to be a spoiler in the next two or three chapters :P


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N:** I AM ALIVE AND BACK IN BUSINESS!

Really, really sorry about the long break of updates, but I have been having a lot of problems ranging from school, health, and even internet problems, and they've been keeping me from updating anything. Recently got back, and I'm trying to get my groove back by updating this needs an update more than anything.

Sorry guys; no holiday entries this time. Maybe later in the year when they're needed, but it far too late for them now.

Yes, I know Dawn said she's been gone for three months while the actual update took longer than that. But I'm not going by my timeline, I'm going by the timeline in the story. So if you're wondering why Dawn says she's been gone for only three months when it's actually been a whopping nine, that's why.

Man, it's so good to be back. Hope this makes up for the delay!

* * *

Dear Journal,

Remember Icarus? Y'know, my cute lil' Chao pet Knux gave to me as an egg as a get well gift when Scourge attacked me? Well, I just found out the lil' bastard took my journal, scribbled it with crayons, markers and a Sharpie, ripped out all the pages and was chewing on the cover. As a parent, I was furious. So Icarus is grounded for the next month (that means no cheese for him). Good news is, I bought a new journal. It has more pages in it and has that little lock on it that needs a key. Thank you Dad.

Took me a while - three months actually - to actually find out what happened to it. It went missing a few days before prom so I didn't know it was gone until recently. I'll write down what happened over that time period later. Right now I have to find somewhere to put this so Icarus can get his paws on it.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Dad thinks I should child-proof my room until Icarus gets older to know better. I took his advice, so now all of my electrical outlets are blocked, the cords are tucked away and hidden, small objects like my earrings, erasers, jewelry pieces and whatnot are kept in a treasure box (lock and key included), and my journal is going to be hid under my mattress. Icarus isn't strong enough to lift it, so it's a good place to store it for now.

* * *

Dear Journal,

I promised I was gonna write down what happened in the last two or three months, so, here goes.

Sonic made me go to prom, and I had no way out of it either. So, like the good father he was, he gave me a little spending money and told me to go to the mall and pick out a dress before the deadline. Candice was going to prom too, so we went out to the mall Saturday and basically had a Girls' Day Out there. There wasn't a theme for the prom, so we could wear anything we wanted, as long as it wasn't too sultry.

I decided to take Icarus with me that day so he could at least see what it was like in a mall. Candice had no problems picking out a dress, running into the first store we came across upon arriving at the mall. I decided to let Candice have her fun; she wanted to wear something that Kura would like. They wanted to be matching when they go the prom, so she would have to pick something they would both like. And THAT meant that she was gonna send a picture of every dress she liked to her boyfriend and see which one he liked the best. This could take a while...

Icarus was playing with some ribbons and getting some of the cashiers to coo at him while Candice took a picture of ANOTHER dress and sent it to Kura's phone.

"Candice, that's the tenth dress so far," I moaned "Just wait until Kura tells you he likes one!"

"But it's so hard to decide!" she whined. "This is my first time going to prom! On top of that, my mom wants to meet Kura that day, and I'm so nervous!"

"I'm sure your mom will like Kura. Just relax..."

"Oh yeah? What did your dad say when he found out you were dating Shadow?"

He teased me about it, that's what he did. "Well, since he and Shadow are friends - now - he didn't really mind. He just wanted to make sure Shadow would look after me."

"Lucky..."

"Keeeee-paaaa." Icarus started pulling at my quills, trying to get my attention yet again. I looked over at him, only to see him frantically pointing at something.

"What is it?"

"Utcha, keroo pa!" He led me over towards the front of the store, but went towards the racks that were closer to the middle. There was this dress hanging by itself in front of the racks, and Icarus was fluttering around it. It looked like one of those traditional Japanese/Asian dresses with the split going down the legs with a dragon print of some kind. But the cool thing about this dress was that the dragon-print was in the Yin-Yang pose at the bottom right side. The dress was all black with a white border, and the Yin-Yang dragon was white as well.

"Whoa, cool," I said as I looked over it. "It's my style too!"

"Hey Dawn," Candice called "Look at this!" She pointed at a suit that was hanging on a rack behind the dress. The suit was all white with a black border, with the Yin-Yang dragon near the left side of the chest. It was obvious that the suit and dress were a set, but it gave me an idea...

I whipped out my phone, took a picture of both the dress and suit, added a message and sent it. Candice watched me, and asked what I was doing. I told her that it was a surprise and that I was gonna buy the dress for prom. She pouted at me because she said it was unfair that I found my dress without looking that much, then added that I cheated because Icarus was the one who found it for me. I stuck my tongue out at her while Icarus danced in the air in victory. She eventually left me alone to go find her dress (or better yet, decide on one) when I got a reply from my last message. I grinned to myself while I clutched my newly purchased badass dress in excitement. Maybe prom won't suck as badly now.

After another hour or so, Candice finally found a dress she really liked. It was a short dress (came down to her knees) with flowers and gem stones dancing at the border. It was baby blue and white (her favorite colors). After that was finally done, we decided to grab something to eat before heading home. When I got back, I showed Dad my dress and said that it fitted me perfectly (personality wise). I told him that he hadn't seen anything yet and went upstairs to put it away until it was time to wear it. I was really excited about this, and I found myself bouncing with said emotion while I got out a few accessories for it. Then I looked over at the clock, realized what time it was and got ready for bed. The final exams were tomorrow, so I needed all the energy I could get if I hoped to pass.

That following day, I went to school and took all of my exams. I was deathly afraid of my French exam, since I pretty much forgot everything Altair (tried) to teach me the week before, so I wasn't feeling very confident. Luckily, I was able to pass with a C-. Besides that, everything went smoothly.

After all of that was done, I met up with my friends after school and we decided to explore around the area since we really didn't have nothing else better to do. I ended up leading them into the Great Forest where Knothole used to be (I mentioned we moved right? If not, we left Knothole and moved back to New Mobotropolis a while back after we had this freak tornado outbreak during a storm. Everyone was forced to evacuate and by the time the storm was over, most of Knothole was destroyed, and we had to relocate. More details on that later, if I remember to write about it). We climbed through the ruins of the place, trying to find our old houses and other buildings we used to recognize. Unfortunately, the only thing we could really find was Cyrus' old place.

We explored a little more, and Kura found a hatch that led somewhere underground. Being the little adventurer I was, I was quick to jump in and see where it went, even though Brenden, Candice and Evra warned me not to since it could be dangerous. The hatch opened a way to a tunnel, but it was so dark down there once you get past the opening that we couldn't see. Kura suggested that we could use our phones as a light source, then we remembered that Cyrus could use echolocation since he was a bat and had better senses in the dark, so he led us through.

The tunnel kept descending into the planet until we came to a wooden door at the very end. I was eager to see where it led to, but Candice was worried that it might be a trap or led to some secret underground cult place. I told them to stop worrying and opened it anyway. The door led to this huge (and I do mean HUGE) looking room, but we couldn't see (surprise surprise). Luckily, Cyrus was able to find a light switch near the door and flipped it. To our astonishment, the lights still worked.

When the lights came back on, the room turned out to be a very old base the Freedom Fighters used (this was way back before my mom and dad became members). I remember my dad telling me that the base had to be underground when Robotnik was a huge threat back when they were still kids, so there was no doubt that this was one of the few of the underground bases.

The room we were in was large and spacious, with more rooms in the back. We explored the place, finding an old computer, some old devices we couldn't make heads or tails of, some walkie-talkies, and a storage room that had a lot of tables, chairs, an old bed, and a stool. Everything else must've been taken out when whoever took residence here decided to leave.

"This place it amazing," Brendon gaped while tinkering with the old computer.

"It looks like it hasn't been used in a few decades," Kura mused, rubbing his finger on a dust-covered table "Wonder why it was abandoned?"

"Maybe they had to move?" Evra pondered "What if Robotnik found out about the place and they were forced to relocate?"

"I dunno," I hummed, looking around "If that were the case, then Robotnik would've sent his troops to attack the place, and everything would be in a mess. But what's left here has been put away neatly. Whoever lived here, they were in no hurry to leave, nor was it against their will."

"I'm surprised the electricity still works in here," Cyrus said from a back room "Think we could use it?"

Candice gave him a look. "Use it for what?"

"Y'know, a place to hang out," Cyrus said as he poked his head out from the back "We can turn it into our own little base to hide out at when we have free time. Think about it; if we cleaned the place up, get a TV, move our game systems in here, get a computer, some plumbing and whatnot, this place would be awesome! There's a lot of room in here for us, y'know?"

"Ooh, it could be like, our own little secret base or something!" Evra squealed.

"Well, if we do this, we're gonna have a lot fo work to do," Candice hummed, taking note of the base's condition. "Not that I'm against it. I like this place a lot more than Dawn's place." She suddenly winced. "No offense."

I waved it off. "None taken. I'm actually getting tired of hanging around there myself."

"Well? It's your call, Boss," Kura said. He suddenly got into the habit of calling me "the Boss" nowadays, and I have no idea where it came from. Then again, my friends sorta see me as the overall leader of this group since I'm usually the one who leads them on escapades like this. "Wanna keep the place?"

I already made my decision when we walked in. "Hell yeah. It's gonna take a lot of work, but I think we'll be able to clean the place up before summer's over as long as we all pull our weight."

We decided to wait until we came back from our trip at Seaside Hill before we actually got started with getting the place back in shape. We all marked the place in our phones (and made memos to bring flashlights the next time we came here) before climbing back out and heading home. We went our separate ways when we reached Mobotropolis again, so I went home immediately. I was pretty tired when I got back, so I spent the rest of that night lounging in my room until I went to bed.

The following day was the day of the prom. It started at six, so I had a few hours to get ready. Evra called me at around one that afternoon saying that she invited all of the girls (there were only three of us) over to her place so we could all get ready together. As much as I didn't want to, I had to decline the offer since I wanted my surprise to remain a surprise until we got to the school.

I took out my dress and all the materials I needed before I took a quick shower. I had to call Rouge over to help me since I wasn't good with make up and I didn't want to mess up my face. I had her bring over a pair of shoes too since I forgot to pick some up at the mall. I can always count on Rouge when I have a fashion emergency,

Then came the issue with my hair/quills. I decided to let my hair grow out a bit for the summer, so I haven't have it trimmed (aside from getting dequilled once every two weeks). I wanted to have it put into a bun on top of my head, but my hair just wouldn't cooperate. As a result, we had to make a last-minute run to Rouge's beautitian. Luckily for me, she was more than happy to have an open chair ready for a Royal Family member (and get a chance to mess around with my hair). Turned out I needed a perm, so I was gonna be in the chair a little longer than usual.

While I had some free time under one of the hair dryers, I texted everyone asking how they were gonna get to prom. Evra texted me saying that she knew I could get Sonic to get us a limo and have someone chauffeur us to the school. I told her I wasn't going to have my dad do that, only to have him text me asking if I wanted him to arrange a limo to take all of us to the school. The irony in that whole situation made me laugh. Like, literally.

Anyway, since Dad was nice enough to offer the limo ride (he had already made up his mind to do it), we were all scheduled to met up at my place and we would all ride to the school together. I had to text the plan of transportation to Shadow, and he told me that my dad told him that he was going to be the one chaffering us around. Once again, I laughed. Then grew a little worried because I never remembered seeing Sonic driving, nor did I know if he actually knew _how_ to drive at all. I would just have to put my faith into him and hope he doesn't somehow kill us all.

So, after all that, my hair finally got in order, and Rouge escorted me back home so she could help me with my dress. I saw my friends there with their suits/dresses in hand, including Shadow. I had to take my bun down before I went into the house because I didn't want to be giving out an unintentional hints about the surprise I had planned. Shadow and I waited for everyone else to get dressed, then we decided go last since we wanted to make our entrances together. Shadow went into the bathroom to get into his suit while Rouge was in my room helping me with my hair, makeup and whatnot. Rouge remade my bun and added a flower pin as an accessory before she helped me put on my mascara. She really wanted me to put on lipstick (black to match the dress), and I kept saying I would rather use lip gloss, but nearly begged me to put it on because she said it would make the outfit complete. I caved in and let her add the lipstick, and hoped that no one would say anything about it.

I finally got my outfit on and complete, and Shadow was patiently waiting outside my bedroom when I went outside. He was wearing the white Yin-Yang suit I texted to him, just like I requested him to. The look on his face when he saw me was priceless; all he could do was stand there and gape at me. I grew a smug grin and Rouge bragged about helping me. Speaking of, said bat wanted to give us an introduction, so she flew downstairs and had us wait until she gave us the signal to come down together.

We heard her give some sort of short speech (something about "the Royal Couple" and "the perfect balance between darkness and light") before she gave the signal for us to come down. Shadow offered his arm to me and I took it in my hands as we walked down the stairs together. Everyone was waiting at the landing (Sonic was even dressed up as an actual chauffeur), and all eyes were suddenly on us. Cyrus and Brendon gaped in the same way Shadow did, Candice and Evra cooed at the fact we were matching, Kura commended us for the clever idea of using Yin and Yang, and Sonic was just at a loss of words. Icarus suddenly started dancing around us once we reached the landing, causing Shadow to chuckle while I had to grab him and settle him down before he accidentally messed up my bun.

"So THAT'S what your surprise was, huh?" Cyrus finally asked.

"Yup! Like it?"

"Clever, very clever," Sonic hummed, trying to hide a grin. Candice said that the colors should've been different since they didn't match our fur colors. I then had to explain to her that black and white were neutral colors and went with anything. After that was done, we headed out into the limo. Dad opened the door for us to get in, then closed it once we were all seated. I teased Sonic about not crashing the limo, and he made a remark that he would make me walk to the school if I was so afraid of him being behind the wheel. Everyone laughed at me while I sulked.

As we waited to arrive at the school, I found out that Candice and Kura were going as a couple (of course), and so was Brendon and Evra. Cyrus didn't have a date since he only wanted to come because we were all going. I forgot to mention how everyone else looked...Candice wore her baby blue dress, and Kura wore a white suit with a baby blue tie with the matching handkerchief in the chest pocket. Evra wore this yellow halter dress with a yellow flower in her hair, while Brendon wore a simple black suit with a yellow rose to compliment Evra's dress. Cyrus wore a suit similar to Brendon's, but he had a orange rose instead of a yellow one.

We talked during the ride (but we made no mention about our future hideout. We wanted it to remain a secret until it was done), but the most popular topic was the Seaside Hill visit we were going to have in the next week. Evra's super as excited - as per usual - while everyone else was just on a normal level of excitement. I was looking forward to the trip as well, but I have a habit of acting indifferent when it came to things like that. Icarus was sitting on my lap, messing with the lights until I had to scold him and tell him to stop. He wouldn't be going into the gym with me, but Dad was going to watch him while we attended the actual prom.

Speaking of that, we had made it to the school after a fifteen minute drive. Students were still heading into the building, but those who were still outside stopped and watched our limo park in the front. Everyone was shocked to see their king step out of the driver's side and open the door for us (my only guess is that they figured Sonic was dropping me off). Brendon and Evra stepped out first and walked into the building hand-in-hand, then Candice and Kura followed them - Candice was holding on to Kura's arm the entire way there. Cyrus got out next, but he stood on the opposite side of Sonic near the door while Shadow and I climbed out the limo. I was holding on to his arm in the same way Candice did with Kura as we walked towards the building. All eyes were suddenly on us, and I could hear them whispering amongst themselves about our arrival. It felt weird; it felt like we were celebrities walking down the red carpet. The only thing we needed now was some paparazzi buzzing around the sidelines snapping pictures left and right.

Icarus tried to follow me into the school, but Sonic held on to him (he threw a slight tantrum in the process) while we headed into the building.

"Have fun, sweetheart!" I heard Sonic. I turned around and stuck my tongue out at him, and he only laughed. I knew he did that on purpose to _try_ to embarrass me, but it didn't work. Still love ya, Dad.

My friends and I met up when we were finally in the building. We couldn't get into the gym quite yet because everyone kept asking if Shadow was my boyfriend or not. Now, everyone in the school knows who Shadow is; I'm pretty sure everyone's heard of the Ultimate Lifeform who helped the king whenever there was a major crisis. On top of that, he was one of the leading agents besides Rouge of the planet's government. That, and he was hot.

Cyrus decided to take on the role as our personal bodyguard since he was only here because we were and he didn't want to be left out. He forced everyone in the halls to stand aside while we made our way into the gym. There were even more students in the gymnasium when we finally got there, so we weren't completely safe. We ran into Altair in the gym; his reaction to me was like Shadow's, except he tried to hide it. As always, he acted as his usual odd charming self as we made small talk (while heavily complimenting my prom get-up).

Then something kinda...peculiar happened.

I introduced him to Shadow, and everything was fine and dandy. He asked if he was my prom-date or an escort, and I said no. But when I told him that he was actually my boyfriend, his demeanor changed a bit. It was very, very faint, but I saw him wince, and when he shook Shadow's hand, his arm seemed so...stiff. As if he was afraid to touch him or didn't want to. On top of that he lost that gleam in his eye he always had. It wasn't completely gone, mind you, but it faded.

Oh, we saw Ruby and her clique there too. I saw her looking at us from the corner of my eye, so I held Shadow's arm lovingly as we talked. I could almost feel her glaring daggers at me, but I didn't care. I got a sick satisfaction of seeing her pissed off.

Then the actual event started. I won't go into detail about what happened, but I will write the key events.

Since this was our first time ever attending a prom, we were pretty clueless on what to do. Cyrus was still in Bodyguard Mode, so as a joke, Shadow gave him a pair of sunglasses he had on him. Cyrus put them on and said all he needed now was a pistol, a silencer and a Bluetooth and he'd be in business. Brendon rolled his eyes at him but we laughed at his humor. They started playing some music after that and everyone was heading to the dance floor. I was not a dancer, so I stayed on the sidelines. Candice saw this as an opprotunity to let loose, so she dragged Kura with her (while he begged for help). Brendon - begin the shy guy that he was - was reluctant to go with them when Evra tried to convince him they should go dance too. He eventually caved in and figured he might as well have some fun while they were there, and they followed Candice and Kura. Cyrus, Shadow and I remained near the wall and watched everyone else make a fool out of themselves. Though, it was fun to see my four friends finally come out of their shells for once. I just enjoyed watching them have their fun. I couldn't find Altair in the crowd, and Ruby's group made a disappearing act as well. I didn't care too much about Ruby, but I did wonder where Altair went off to.

They grew tired before the song was over and came back over to us to take a break. Evra asked Shadow if he was having a good time or not, and he only shrugged and said that he was having fun watching them act as fools (but he didn't say that in a mean way; he was joking). We had to wait a while before a slow song finally started playing, and I told Cyrus to take five while the rest of us danced.

As cheesy as this might sound, when Shadow and I danced, it reminded me when we first danced at my birthday party shortly before we started dating. Except this time, we could feel the passion radiating off one another and it was...well, it was just like one of those moments in a romance film where you could just see the love between the male and female protagonists as something like this was going on. It would've been an even more Kodak moment if we kissed, but when we leaned in to do so, the song ended and it was time to announce the Prom King and Queen.

The Prom King was announced first, and the winner was - not shocking at all - Altair. He had an automatic victory as soon as his name was announced to be on the ballots. Now, I was curious to see just who the Queen was. I was planned to be one of the candidates, but I had my name taken off the ballot since 1. I didn't want to be Prom Queen and 2. I didn't want to hurt Shadow's feelings if I was crowned alongside someone else and not him. Besides, I had my own crown I could wear anytime I wanted to, and Shadow was going to earn his in a couple of years.

I was half expecting Ruby to be Queen, but it turns out that she has been getting on everyone else's bad side as well. So the crown was given to this chinchilla girl named Terri. I knew Terri from some of my classes; she's a sweet girl. I was happy for her when she was given the crown, but I really didn't care about the runner-ups that were announced afterwards. I congratulated Altair and Terri on the victory, and Terri almost went fangirl on me when she saw that the princess was speaking with her. I was so glad Altair managed to calm her down before Cyrus had to come in and do something drastic (he's taken this bodyguard thing seriously).

And so, that ends prom. We talked with Altair and Terri before Sonic texted me saying that it was time to go. We bid both of them goodbye, and Altair said he would be waiting for us at Seaside soon. I told him we were guaranteed to be there before we left the gymnasium. When we got back into the limo, Icarus immediately greeted me with a tight hug - one of those hugs a smile child gives his parent after they've been gone a long time. He took his rightful place back on my lap while sonic drove us home. Needless to say, I was exhausted. Not exactly tired, but more so glad that the whole thing was over with. I thought I would have to be carried back to my room when we finally got home (Sonic took the liberty of dropping my friends off, and Shadow simply teleported home), but I found the strength to drag myself up there myself. I took off my dress, took a hot shower and collapsed on my bed. Then I had to get back up and put Icarus to bed before he could mess around and THEN went to bed. I had a fun that day, but I don't have any plans on doing it again anytime soon.

Holy crap, this is almost ten pages from one entry. Good thing Dad bought me a new one!

* * *

Dear Journal,

Packing up my suitcases. We're heading out to Seaside Hill tomorrow. It's almost halfway across the country, so we're taking a plane. It was more like a private jet (custom built by Miles Tails Prower), so we'll be there before the morning was over.

Man I'm so pumped about going up there. And for my birthday, no less! And Shade's able to come too, which is even better! Luckily, he's still in his puppy stage, so he just barely met the dog size requirements to get into the hotel with us.

Okay, gotta put this down. Icarus has one of my bras on his head.

Little weirdo.

* * *

**E/N:** So, there's something that I want to explained down here before we go any further, and this issue was brought up once before while _Emerald Kisses_ was still being written: As most of you Archie readers know, Knothole was obliterated after Dr. Robotnik/Dr. Eggman and Snively attacked the placed and kidnapped everyone and sent them to the Egg Grapes. I completely forgot about this detail while I was still writing EK, and when I realized my mistake, it was too late to fix it since I was too far into the series. I decided to correct this mistake here; it was already planned on how Dawn ended up in New Mobotropolis without messing up Archie's continuity or my series' continuity. I figured that a freak storm would've been a more suited disaster to force them to leave instead of someone like Robotnik or another villain because this all takes place after Sonic is a grown man, married and the King. Therefore, Robotnik's attack on Knothole would be extremely out of place.

Note: I do know that this mistake is also in Royal Quills (I believe), and since that series is also done, I can't really correct that mistake because it escaped my mind as the series was being written. It might be fixed if I make a sequel to that, but I am not entirely sure. Again, I'm trying to make sure that this doesn't mess up both Archie's and my series' continuity, so there will be some explanation and a bit of improvising here and there. Again, I apologize about the mistake and I hope I don't make the same one again.

On a better note, Dawn's birthday celebration at the hotel will be the main focus in the next two or three chapters. REALLY glad to be back and updating again. Hope you guys didn't miss me too much :P


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N:** Updated faster than what I normally do. Just a few days late; not too bad from my usual update schedule.

* * *

Dear Journal,

We're on the jet now and I'm waiting for the rest of my friend to board. Candice is going to be a little late because her parents are having some car troubles, so their arrival will be delayed by ten minutes or so.

Everyone else made it, though. Evra's just literally bouncing with energy and excitement that it's almost irritating. Cyrus and Kura are talking about exploring the old palace and the other areas once we get settled in. Cyrus asked Brendon and Evra if they wanted to attend the exploration, but they declined since they actually wanted to enjoy Seaside the way it's supposed to (in other words, kicking back on the beach and whatnot). I told the boys I wanted to go with them as well, but I also said I wanted to ask Candice if she wanted to go with us once she gets here.

Speaking of Candice, she boarded the jet just as the final decision was made. I told her about what the boys and I were gonna do, and I just knew that she was gonna come with us once she found out Kura was going. She surprised me when she said no and just wanted to chill with Brendon and Evra while we were out exploring. Kura told her we would be careful when Tails poked his head into the back telling us to strap in. We're about to take off, so I'll be right back.

* * *

Dear Journal,

We made it to Seaside a few hours ago and everyone got settled into their rooms. I expected more paparazzi to be at the hotel when we got there, but it was empty. Turns out Sonic made the reservations in private to make sure the public wouldn't try to overrun the place and ruin my birthday/vacation.

Getting back to the main subject, everyone's room was on the same floor (which was the third), and all of our rooms were in the same vicinity from each other's. Candice, Evra, Icarus and I were sharing a room, Brendon, Cyrus, and Kura were sharing a room, Shade was going to be staying with Sonic and Tails, and Knuckles, Julie-Su and Shadow had room to themselves. The room I was sharing with Candice and Evra was in the middle, Sonic and Tails' room was across from ours, the boys' room was on the left side of Sonic's, Shadow's room was on the right side of ours, and Knuckles and Julie-Su's room was on the other side of Sonic's. Our room was nice; had a balcony that had a perfect view of the beach. There were only two beds in the main part of the room, but there was another room behind a door across from the bathroom, and there was a small room with one bed and another way on to the balcony. It had its own TV and couch, and it was just as nice as the main part. Candice offered to take the room and have Evra and I stay in the main part since we were best friends, but I insisted on taking the room because it was comfortable and I didn't need much to be satisfied. Besides, I wanted those two to spend more time with each other without me being there.

Since my birthday was two days away, we could pretty much do whatever we wanted to do for the time being. Besides, we were going to be here for a full week, so we might as well enjoy ourselves. It was a little after noon and there wasn't much to do, so we headed down stairs to have lunch. I had to keep a close eye on Icarus because he kept trying to make a B-line for the desserts. Though, it was fairly quiet down there; I sorta expected some people to freak out due to our presence, but they didn't. It was more casual than anything, though there were a few who were more than happy to finally meet the princes. Other than that, lunch went by smoothly. I had to give Icarus his daily dose of cheese and sweets for him to be completely satisfied and not bug me for snacks later. It's hard being a parents sometimes.

We had time to spare, so my friends and I grabbed our swim gear and headed for the beach. The Seaside Hill in my old Sonic Heroes games is nothing compared to what I saw. Yes, the waters were clear, the grass was bright green, there were golden beaches and all kinds of plant-life flourishing everywhere, but it didn't look like some sort of race course or stage from my game. It looked like a natural resort, with _so_ much more eye candy than from the game. Brendon, Candice and Kura immediately headed towards the water while the rest of us stayed behind to lay down our beach towels and set up the umbrella. Evra wanted to get a tan, then I reminded her that it was impossible since she was a Mobian and would most likely sweat into her fur. She pouted at me and said she wanted to be human again while we laughed.

I was apparently wrong about Icarus being satisfied for a while since he saw a concession stand selling snacks and started bugging me about getting him something. Fortunately, I had bought a little money in my bag so Shadow and I went over to buy Icarus a pretzel (plus, we wanted some snow cones). I bought Icarus a saltless pretzel - with nacho cheese dipping sauce, of course - and Shadow offered to pay for the snow cones. He bought a blue one while I wanted red.

"Get blue raspberry instead," he told me "they're better."

"Everyone gets blue raspberry," I said "I prefer the cherry ones more."

He raised what was supposed to be his eyebrow in an amused manner. "Really? Blue raspberry always the more popular flavor. I expected you to agree."

I blinked. "I do. Don't get me wrong, I always like blue raspberry-flavored anything. But there are times where I believe cherry is the better flavor. Not all the time, but some. Besides, you should know that I prefer to stand out with a lot of things. And picking a favorite snow cone flavor has to be one of them."

"That so? Well then, I think I'll be doing the same as well." I made a face and was about to ask him what he meant by that, then realized what he did when he bought us both lemon-lime flavored snow cones. This will probably sound odd, but I never knew this flavor of snow cone existed until now. Granted, I never had snow cones very often as a human or a Mobian, so the flavor most likely existed, but I never knew about it. Anyway, they were tasty, although they tasted more like Sprite or 7up without the fizz.

When we returned to everyone else, Brendon, Candice and Kura had came back from the water and were playing some weird version of volleyball using our beach ball. They were trying to see how long they could keep our beach ball in the air without it hitting the sand, sorta like how you bounce a balloon in the air to keep it from hitting the ground. It looked fun, so I joined the next game after I finished my snow cone. Shadow joined in too, and everyone else followed. After a few rounds, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Julie-Su came out to see what we were up to, and watched us play our little game of Pass the Beach Ball. They also joined the game after a round or two, but Sonic decided to spice things up a bit.

"We should use our abilities to hit or save the ball," he explained "Of course, that doesn't mean that you can cheat and get it into the air once it hits the ground. You can only use two special moves per round. Otherwise you'll be disqualified until the next round. Sound fair, right?"

"What about some of us who don't really have any special abilities?" I asked "Not all of us can do anything spectacular." And when I said "not all," I meant me. Sure I inherited my dad's speed and have the ability to use Chaos Control - like every other hedgehog can - I really don't have any special powers or cool skills that were my own. I mean, my own friends were starting to surpass me! Brendon could use his tail as a whip, Evra had her bunny legs for speed and jump height, Cyrus could kick up little windstorms and do all kinds of acrobatic stuff, Kura - being a predatory Mobian - had increased strength and quick reflexes, and Candice was like Kura as far as reflexes go, but she also had this sixth sense where she can sense an incoming object when she's not looking.

And me? I could just run fast and teleport...I felt so generic.

"You'll find your inner talent, Kiddo. It just takes time," Sonic said, while giving me one of those apologetic parent smiles "But try not to worry about it and just have fun, 'kay?"

I pouted slightly. "Okay..."

And so the game begun. It started out normal at first, until Tails spiked the ball towards the water. Shadow Chaos Controlled to where the ball was going to land and smacked it back over to us. I hit it towards Brendon, and he smacked the ball with his tail and sent it flying. Knuckles did this cool thing where he dug into the sand and burrowed towards the area the ball was landing to, then came out of the ground and hit it back towards us. He somehow hit the ball high, so Cyrus flew into the air and saved it, hitting it with gusto and sending it flying over Sonic's head. Sonic used his speed to run and save the ball just before it hit the ground and sent it flying again, but Evra managed to save it by jumping into the air and hitting it towards me. I just stuck with the basics and hit the ball normally, since using my speed or teleporting wasn't really necessary at the time. I managed to get the ball to go to Julie-Su's direction, and she - like everyone else at this point - managed to hit the ball hard enough to send it flying out of our range. Candice saved the ball this time; since she was a Siberian husky, which was a sled-pulling canine - she was naturally quick and saved the ball before it hit the ground. She passed it to Kura, whom reacted fast and sent the ball in the air, prompting Cyrus to go after it again.

This process continued for a while; everyone would use their skills to save/hit the ball to someone else until said ball hit the ground. Unfortunately, the one round lasted for the entire game since everyone kept saving it with special moves. It would've been fun if I didn't feel so left out. Fortunately, the game finally ended when Icarus finally finished his pretzel, came over, caught the ball while it was in midair and flew off with it. I chased him down while everyone else looked on and laughed. The little Chao made sure to stay out of reach by flying over me, so Cyrus had to come in and grab him for me whilst he took the ball and returned to everyone else. We spent most of the day playing, and it was close to five when we finally went back to the hotel.

So now, we're back in the dining room for dinner. Everyone's talking about how fun the game was, and Sonic says that we should do it again another day while we're here. The game was fun at first until he decided to add special moves. Yeah, I know I sound like a sore loser, but it really bugs me that I don't really have a special ability of my own like everyone else does. It sucked really.

Cyrus and Kura want to set out for our expedition tomorrow. I told them that I would have to look into what kind of areas we could explore when we get back to our rooms. I brought my laptop with me and since we got free wi-fi in the hotel, I could do a quick search of the landmarks and whatnot to see what would be a good place to start. Cyrus said it would be a good idea if we went out early, preferably at around six, so we could pack a few necessities and grab a quick breakfast before heading out.

Alright, I'm hungry so I might as well eat instead of writing in this thing.

* * *

Dear Journal,

We're back in our rooms now. Everyone made it back to their rooms a little while ago, but the girls and I wanted to grab a few snacks since we're going to watch a movie when we got back. They have this little store on the first floor where you could buy stuff like candy and chips if you didn't want to drive out to the nearest Quickie Mart (which was miles away from the hotel). We bought stuff like microwave popcorn, some candy bars and a few sodas and we each paid for our own stuff, and then headed back to our room.

So now we're trying to decide what kind of movie we were going to watch. I wanted to watch a horror movie, so I asked them if there was a good horror movie they wanted to watch. Evra said she couldn't think of one, so she's looking through Netflix to see if there was something good we could watch. While they do that, I'm looking up what's in the hotel's area on my laptop so I can send some of the locations to the boys before we leave tomorrow. Turns out that the ruins of the Ocean Palace is only a mile away, so I sent that information regarding it to Kura (he brought his laptop as well). Now I have to wait for his reply.

Okay, so Candice and Evra are looking at a cover for a movie called The Human Centipede. None of us never heard of it before, and it looked interesting. I told her to select that one and let it download while I gave Icarus a piece of my cookies n' creme Hershey bar. I really need to stop feeding him so much junk food and get him into things more healthy. I wonder if I should start him off with spinach instead of broccoli, considering that spinach is one of my favorite green veggies.

Just got Kura's reply. He said:

_I think it would be better if we headed towards the area in the back of the hotel. I heard it's like what Sonic's team explored through on his first visit here. It's not as far as the palace, but there are a lot of caves and all kinds of places we could explore if we headed there. And since it's closer, we don't have to leave as early - no less than 7. How's that sound?_

My reply was:

_Ok, cool. We'll meet up downstairs and go one form there._

So, it's settled. Instead of the palace, we're going to the normal side of Seaside (ha - rhyming).

Oh, sweet. The movie's done downloading. Time to see if it's good.

* * *

Dear Journal,

This movie isn't scary...it's downright disturbing, and we're only into the first thirty minutes of it.

Okay, getting down to the plot, it's about this mad scientist who wasn't to create a human centipede (and he's German. Who saw _that_ coming?). So he kidnapped a bunch of people - his last victims being these two chicks on a road trip who got a flat tire - and is holding them up in his messed up lab in his basement. But here's the mess up part...He's gonna try and create a human centipede using these people, right? But the way he's gonna do it...he's, ugh, he's gonna connect their anuses with their mouths. Yeah, not kidding. I don't even think that's medically poss-

OH MY GOD, WHAT IS HE DOING TO THEM?!

* * *

Dear Journal,

I'm off chocolate forever...

* * *

Dear Journal,

Welp, there goes my sleep for tonight.

Also, I'm going to be watching cartoons for the next month.

* * *

Dear Journal,

THERE'S A GODDAMN SEQUEL! WHAT KIND OF SICK PERSON WOULD MAKE THIS CRAP?! AND WHO WOULD WATCH IT?

Then again, this looks like something Finitevus would watch in his free time. Knowing him he might attempt to do something like this...

Wait...holy...

* * *

Dear Journal,

We're all scarred for life. I'm so sorry, girls...What were we thinking?

Evra just had a puking fit and Candice looks like she's about to throw up her insides in a moment.

What I like about this situation is that Icarus seems completely unphased by what's going on and is devouring the rest of our snacks. Just looking at him eat makes me feel nauseous.

I really need to try and get some sleep since we're getting up early tomorrow...I might have to cancel the expedition if I don't feel any better in the morning, if I'm able to get some sleep. Welp, looks like Icarus is my cuddle-buddy for tonight.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Yeah, I am NOT getting any sleep tonight. It's after midnight already. Might as well watch those cartoons...

* * *

**E/N:** For those of you who have never seen or heard of the movie "The Human Centipede," I HIGHLY recommend NOT watching it. Seriously, that movie is the most disgusting and vile thing I have ever seen in my life.

I love updating again. And it's been a while since I added chapters to this...might as well add a few.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N:** Updated due to popular demand.

* * *

Dear Journal,

It's six forty-five and I just got out the shower. I only got about five hours of sleep last night thanks to the goddamn movie. Oddly enough, I didn't have any nightmares. I must've been too tired to even think about it.

Anyway, I just got out the shower and I'm letting myself air-dry a bit before I get dressed and pack up. The girls are still asleep, so I'm going to try not to wake them up, but I'll leave them a little note saying that I left with the guys on our expedition. Icarus is coming with me, so I gave him a quick bath once I was done showering.

Speaking of Icarus, I believe he's getting close to evolving pretty soon (heh. I make him sound like a Pokemon). His usual blue and yellow body color is changing into white and blue, and the two antennae on his head are melding into one. I know he's turning into a Hero Chao, I just don't know which type it is yet. I could ask Knuckles when we get back, or I could just look it up on the internet. Then again, a Chao evolves based on what type the owner is. And I believe I'm a speed type like my dad.

I think I'm gonna go ahead and get dressed. It's almost seven and judging by the map Kura sent me, we will have a lot of ground to cover, and we probably won't be back until later on this evening. Now to find something to wear...Oh. Better write that note, too.

Screw it. I'm wearing my green tank top and camouflage pants again.

* * *

Dear Journal,

Waiting in the lobby for them now. I grabbed a quick bite to eat by getting a bagel and split both halves between Icarus and I. I have a small backpack with a few necessities like water and energy bars and a small first aid kit just in case. Also, I ran into Altair while I was down here. He was talking to some of the hotel staff and I called over to him. I noticed that he was dressed too well to be someone working here part-time. He was happy to see me though - as always - and we made small talk. He asked me what I was doing down here so early, and I told him that the guys and I were going on a mini-expedition through the actual hill of Seaside.

"Ah, so you're going on an adventure," he chuckled "How fitting that you'll be trekking through the very same grounds your father did years ago."

"Too bad we won't make it to the Palace," I sighed. I really wanted to go there for some reason. Icarus started messing with Altair's dreads. I told him to stop since that was rude, but Altair said that he wasn't bothering him, so I left him alone. "By the way, who's going with you exactly?"

"Oh, my friends Cyrus and Kura. You remember them, right?"

"Mm...that's the bat and the wolf, correct?"

"Yeah, that's them."

"Shadow's not going with you?"

"No." Why would it matter to him if Shadow's coming with us or not?

"Oh. That's a shame. Well, in any case, I do hope you three have a good time out there. The only real danger out there are the animals, so mind them while you're out."

"Will do." Altair smiled at me before he picked Icarus up from the floor (he was messing with his shoe laces this time) and gave him to me before he turned around and started to leave. "Oh! Wait! Altair, hold on! There's something I wanted to ask you."

He stopped walking and turned towards me again. "Hm?"

"What...do you exactly_ do_ here? I mean, judging by your uniform, it looks like you're in the higher class of employees..."

He looked at me for a quick moment before he gained his usual smirk. "I'm the assistant manager." And he left while I sat there gaping at him. Still can't believe the guy is an assistant manager of all things...and this was supposed to be a part-time job? I think there's more to that than what he's telling me...

Oh, I see Cyrus and Kura getting off the elevator now. Time to go.

* * *

Dear Journal,

We just got back. We had a great time, too! We've been out there for...wow, pretty much the whole day. I'm really sore though, but hey, it comes with the territory. Still can't believe we found that place though...

Anyway, here's what happened:

When we met up downstairs, Kura had the map of the area we were supposed to be going. All three of us had small bags/backpacks of stuff we thought we were going to need while we were out, but Kura had things like the map and a compass just in case we got lost, and he even brought a digital camera to take pictures. We agreed to make it back here by six - no later than seven - and call it a day. We had our cell phones with us, but we had our communicators just in case we couldn't get a signal out there. Once all that was taken care of, we left.

Now, we decided to head to the area behind the hotel, which was northwest. We had to climb some hills and get over some leftover ruins of the Ocean Palace before we could actually begin. We were about ten minutes into the journey when I noticed that everything was starting to look like the Seaside Hill level form Sonic Heroes; the same place Sonic's team and the others trekked through their first visit here. The only difference now is that a lot of trees and grass as grown over the path they took, so it looked more like a tropical forest.

We eventually made it to this little cave or sorts. It was really pretty; there were a lot of holes in the ceiling, so plenty of sunlight was able to get in. Plus, there was plant life growing inside, along with pools and ponds of water here and there. Kura instantly got out his camera and started taking pictures.

"Kinda makes you feel like you're on an actual expedition," I said out loud as we explored the place "I wonder if we'll find any kinds of ancient treasure?"

Cyrus laughed. "Maybe we'll find a Chaos Emerald. THAT would be somethin' huh?"

"Hey...I just noticed something."

I stopped looking at this exotic looking flower and looked back at Kura. "What?"

"We unintentionally made a team," he said.

Cyrus was hanging upside down on the ceiling (HOW he was doing that remains a mystery) and gave him a look. "Whaddya mean?"

"Okay, look," he said "You know how Sonic told us that a basic team is made up of a Speed type, Power type and Flight type, right?"

I tilted my head. "Yeah...?"

"Now...just by looking at us, what would Dawn be?"

I heard Cyrus make a humming sound. "A Speed Type?"

Kura nodded. "Right. And Cyrus?"

"A Flight type." I said. "And you would be a Power type."

Kura nodded again. "Exactly. So...if you think about it, we really did unintentionally made a team of our own."

"Holy crap, you're right," Cyrus said as he landed back on the ground. "That's kinda cool, actually. Maybe we could show Sonic we're a team when we begin our training." Dad's been trying to figure out when he could start our training as Freedom Fighters. Cyrus, Kura and I are really the only ones who qualify to actually become members. Everyone else doesn't want to get involved too much, unless it's for support, but I heard Brendon say that he wanted to be like Rotor and help those on the field through the home base.

"I think we'd actually have to go through Team Training if that were the case," I told them.

"Sonic, Shadow, Amy or the Chaotix didn't have to go through Team Training when they first started out," Kura pouted.

"That's because they were rushed into saving the world that same day," I reminded them "They had to learn the basics of teams while they were on their adventures. Now that the techniques have been mastered, Dad thought it would be a better idea to have new recruits go through the proper training so that they can learn what needs to be learned beforehand so they won't have to go through the same thing they went through. Besides, from what both Dad _and_ Shadow told me, functioning as a team wasn't as easy as they made it seem in the game. They fought a lot thanks to their differences, and there were times where their fighting nearly costed them a few times while in battle."

"He's only trying to do the right thing," Cyrus added "You gotta remember that Sonic's a veteran with this kind of stuff. He's only trying to look after us."

I noticed that Icarus was playing on one of the ponds, and I went over to check on him to make sure he hadn't put anything like a snail or something into his mouth while I wasn't looking. I could still hear Cyrus and Kura discussing the teams and the training in the background, but I tuned them out while I tried to get Icarus out of the pond. He protested a little, then agreed to come out after some gentle coaxing.

I called for the boys to come on; I didn't want to waste daylight in here discussing the terms of training when we could be exploring. We headed deeper into the cave, only to come across a low cliff. It was steep, and there was nothing for us to grab on to so we could climb up, nor was there any sort of way we could get around it. So, it looked like we were stuck there unless we turned around and headed back, but none of us wanted to do that.

"I could carry us over it," Cyrus hummed "but I might have to do it one at a time."

"Or we could get in the Flight Formation," Kura said. I could understand Kura's enthusiasm in wanting to perform as an actual team, but none of us have began the training for it and we really didn't know what it was we were supposed to do. Besides, I didn't think Cyrus would be strong enough to lift us both.

"Kuraaa..."

"C'mon! We could at least try!"

Cyrus looked at us with a hint of nervousness in his eyes. "I don't think I'd be able to carry you two anyway." I could tell Kura wasn't going to let this go anytime soon, so I told Cyrus to just go ahead and try just for the hell of it. He didn't like it, but did as he was told regardless. I held his hands before he started to lift me up into the air. Kura followed suit by holding on to my ankles as Cyrus continued flying higher.

"Urk! You guys are heavier than I thought!" he grunted.

"Hey, all my weight is pure muscle," Kura scoffed. "Dawn's the heavier one."

I looked down at him and raised the ridge of my eye. "Dude, I'm like, ninety pounds even -"

"Damn, you're small."

"Shut up, Cyrus. Anyway, if I weigh less than you, how could I be the heaviest?"

Kura gave me an incredulous look. "With all the junk you eat per day, it's surprising that you haven't broke to a hundred pounds yet! Seriously, how are you THAT skinny and eat cake for breakfast?"

"Same reason why Sonic can eat fifty chili dogs and still look like a like he's in perfect shape. Which he is, considering how fast and far he runs a day."

"I think it's your metabolism," Cyrus said "For you two to run at that high of speed, plus given the great distances you'd travel, you need a LOT of energy to burn. Then again, Mobians and humans are different, so maybe they're bodies act differently too. Maybe certain people need to eat certain foods to gain the necessary vitamins, proteins, nutrients and whatnot to survive. In this case, Sonic needs chili dogs and Dawn needs sugar." That might explain why Knuckles eats a lot of grapes...

Kura snorted. "Or it could be that they just have really bad eating habits and their bodies are trying to counter it."

"You do know I can just kick you off, right?"

"Alright, alright...yeesh..." Cyrus carried us to the cliff top and set us down before we continued our trek. It was still pretty early, so we didn't kill too much time while we were in the cave. Speaking of, the cave was pretty long, as if it were a tunnel instead of an actual cave. The flora and vegetation became scarce as we continued, only seeing a few patches of grass here and there until we came out on the other side. We made it to another beach, but it was smaller than the one near the hotel. There were more cliffs and hills in this area, but we scattered to explore this area a little. Icarus and I decided to collect a few seashells that were in the sand, Kura was taking a few pictures of a tidal pool, and Cyrus was flying above a group of dolphins that were feeding near shore.

I was planning on having Evra help me make seashell necklaces if we collect enough to make a few. I even managed to find this large hot pink shell that sparkled as if it was covered in glitter. I was keeping that one to myself, but the satchel (I brought it with me just in case there was something we might pick up and wanted to take with us) that we were putting them in was getting full, so we had to stop. Icarus wanted to keep this blue conch shell that he found, so I let him carry it as long as he didn't lose it (and ultimately decided to put it on his head and wear it as a hat). We went over to see what Kura was up to, only to see him examining a starfish that he pulled out of the pool. I told him to come on and he followed me over to where Cyrus was after he put the starfish back. When we went over to the bat, he was yelling at the dolphins - apparently they were trying to squirt water at him while he was in the air as if they were playing some sort of target game. As funny as it would be to see that, I had to usher Cyrus away before one of the aquatic mammals ended up in a tuna can. That is, AFTER Kura got a shot of two of the dolphins leaping out of the water.

Now that the gang was rounded up again, we continued our journey and continued down the trail. It was close to three when I checked the time again, but we still had some time before we would have to go home. The path we were on was similar to the one I remembered from the game back on Earth. The only difference here is that it was covered with more nature, and there weren't anything like Egg Pawns, springs, or cannons around.

We were about to make it to another beach area when I noticed something on the path. On my right, I noticed that the trees, bushes and shrubs were placed in a...particular way. For instance, two palm trees sat across from each other at exactly four feet, while the bushes and shrubs were sitting at the trees' roots in the shape that made a path. It was really obscure, but you could see what looked like another path beyond the trees and bushes. But it was really narrow looking...and it looked like it was trying to be covered back up after it was discovered...unless...

I called the boys over (they were heading towards the beach without me), and I pointed out the path to them. Kura took yet another picture after Cyrus was able to confirm that it was indeed an alternative path, thanks to his enhanced vision. We all wanted to enter the path to see where it went, so we instantly decided to take a little detour and went in.

Just as I figured, the path was narrow, so we had to form a line when we first went in. Fortunately, the path grew wider the deeper we headed, so the line didn't last long. The downside was that it got dark when you first enter, and we had to rely on Cyrus' awesome seeing abilities to guide us through most of the path, which turned out to be another tunnel of sorts.

We were at least five minutes into the tunnel when we noticed that the golden-orange rock walls started to turn into pure white marble. On top of that, light started to become visible, and the entire tunnel was soon illuminated. We realized that we were almost out, and we nearly ran to the other side to the exit to see where we ended up. When we did reach the outside, however, all of our jaws dropped.

The tunnel was actually a secret passage way to some sort of secret lagoon. The lagoon itself was actually the remains of the Ocean Palace; The place was huge - I'm talking a football or baseball stadium huge, but smaller. Marble columns were placed around the lagoon, as if they were still holding up a roof that was long gone. with five floors that led up to the sky. Vines, flora, moss, grass, and even a few trees covered most of the surface, while a large pool of water sat in the middle. I could only guess that rain and some of the ocean were able to make its way in here after a few centuries or more, filling up what used to be the floor while the land around it was covered with green. A little island - well, it was an island _now_ - sat towards the back. A marble statue of a giant sea turtle accompanied with two orcas on its sides was above the island, embedded in the wall. Vines and moss covered the statue, and old age made a few cracks visible here and there. The newly opened roof made it possible for the sun to enter, which made the water sparkle magnificently and giving the marble its signature shine and glow, despite its new green coat. The sight itself was truly awe-inspiring, and we were left utterly speechless, aside from Icarus, who was doing some sort of dance while making excited noises.

We eventually were able to move and we spread out and looked around. Turns out that the land around the water had a spiral staircase that went up to the upper floors. It would be so cool to actually go up there and explore, but with the sheer size AND the number of floors this place had, it would take us the rest of the day plus going into the evening and night to fully explore it.

"It's so beautiful in here..." I sighed, rubbing my hand on one of the columns.

"Who would've thought that a place like _this_ would be hidden here..." Kura mused while he was taking as many pictures of the place as he could.

"It's a shame we forgot our swim suits," Cyrus hummed "I really wanted to take a swim in the water. I mean, look how clear it is!" I looked around some more - whilst Icarus was pinning a flower in my hair - when I gained an idea, and it was an awesome one.

"Hey guys," I said "Let's head back." Both boys looked at me with both shocked and disappointed expressions; even Icarus gave me the puppy dog eyes.

"What for?" Cyrus whined.

"How many pictures did you get, Kura?" I asked the wolf, completely ignoring Cyrus.

Said wolf blinked before he started scrolling through the pictures he took of the place. "Uhh...like, six. Why?"

"Take a few more, and make sure you get a shot of the entire area when we first walked in," I instructed. "I wanna show 'em to everyone when we get back."

Both Cyrus and Kura gave me a questioning look. "Why?"

I grinned. "'Cause I know what we're doing for my birthday." It took them a few seconds to understand what I meant, but when they put two and two together, they grinned at each other before Kura started taking five more pictures. Once he was finished, we marked the area on our maps (including the entrance) before leaving and went back to the hotel. By the time we made it back, the sun was beginning to set, and everyone was getting ready to go to dinner. We were really excited to tell everyone about what we found when we returned, but it was decided that we would tell and show them the pictures while we ate. We took quick showers and met everyone downstairs, and when Sonic asked how was our trip, all three of us started babbling. Eventually, we were able to calm down and the first thing that came out fo our mouths was about the lagoon. We showed them the pictures as we explained how we got there; everyone was just as awe-struck as we were, and even Tails didn't know about the lagoon until we told the story. I could tell from the looks in their eyes that they wanted to go there as well, so I thought it would be a goo idea to finally bring up my idea.

"I thought it would be a good place for us to go for my birthday tomorrow," I said "It could be a little field trip for us there and we can spend most of the day swimming and exploring." Dad started rubbing his chin as he looked over a few more of the pictures. Now I was getting worried that he would say no..."Please Dad? Just for tomorrow?"

"It will only be us! No one else will know about the place," Cyrus added "We know how you are about preserving secret and sacred areas like this..."

"It's not that far from the hotel," Kura said "We could borrow one of the Jeeps and get there in a matter of minutes!"

"We'll be good!" Candice and Evra begged.

Sonic finally looked at us and smiled. "I never said no," he said, causing a wave of relief to wash over us "I'm just trying to figure out what the heck I'm gonna do here when we go..." Cyrus, Kura and I exchanged high fives while Knuckles suggested that he could learn how to swim. Sonic said he could go screw himself.

So we spent the rest of dinner discussing the plans for the trip to the lagoon tomorrow. My group of friends - including myself - were hyped up about going, and we started talking about what we were going to do when we go there tomorrow. Brendon said he wanted to study the palace itself to see how long its been there while Kura is keen on exploring some more. Candice and Evra wanted to hang out on the island and Cyrus just wanted to chill in the water. Me? I was just happy we were all going, and Sonic told us that we were going to have to pack scarcely; The lagoon was still part of the palace and it was still considered sacred, so that meant no food or drinks - aside from water - and we all had to share most of our stuff, such as umbrellas or beach toys. We could, however, have our own towel, and things like cell phones or MP3 player had to be left in our bags. Also, we're leaving in the morning, ad we would have to eat moderate breakfasts and use the restroom before leaving.

Once the rules and regulations were made, Kura showed them where the lagoon was on the map, and Tails offered to rent us two Jeeps to drive the whole gang there. The plans were settled by the time we finished eating, and we all went to our rooms to have the rest of the night to ourselves. We would have to go to bed pretty early though, since we were leaving at seven thirty in the morning, and everyone had to be up by six fifteen. The girls and I were too excited about the trip and we kept talking about it while the TV was on in the background. We eventually managed to take our minds off the trip and started messing around on my laptop, which led us into playing Bejeweled for a while. We took turns taking showers while one of us did a level, before we called it quits when we realized it was almost eleven o' clock.

So, here I am, sitting on my bed writing down every detail that happened today. I actually started writing this when we first came back to our rooms, but with all the distractions, it was hard to write all of this down. It's after midnight now; I better get some sleep. I'll write down what happens at the lagoon tomorrow.

* * *

**E/N:** I'm going to be working pretty soon, and my schedule's going to be a bit tight, but I will make some time to update every now and then.

Sorry for the long delay!


End file.
